


Rebel Omega

by Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha!Sam, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Azazel Alistair and Asmodeus are Alpha brothers and tortured Omega Gabriel for years, Castration, Domestic Violence, Everyone Knows Before They Do, Feral Behavior, Gabriel cuts off certain anatomical bits in chapter 4, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Masturbation, Omega!Gabriel, Paleolithic AU, Prior Sam/Jessica, Tortured Gabriel (Supernatural), Violence against Omegas, You Have Been Warned, mentions of rape/non-con, rebel omega
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:53:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness/pseuds/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness
Summary: Dean Winchester finds a feral Omega in the woods who turns out to be Gabriel.  Sam nurses him back to health, but brothers Azazel, Asmodeus and Alistair want their Omega back...
Relationships: Gabriel/Sam Winchester, John Winchester/Mary Winchester, Lisa Braeden/Dean Winchester
Comments: 103
Kudos: 128
Collections: Rich A/B/O 2020 Collection, Speight Bingo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2020 Richard Speight Jr. A/B/O fic challenge. Should be updated weekly. First chapter fills 2019 A/B/O Bingo square, **'Rebel Omega.'** Betaed by the amazing L.P. Collins!

“You’ll never guess what we caught!” Dean slapped Sam on the back hard enough the healer was pushed forward. He was able to save the powder in his pestle, but still gave Dean a bitchface. 

“Another bear?” Sam grimaced; bear meat was edible, but Sam personally hated it. 

Dean let out a howl of laughter. “No! We found you a mate, Sammy!” 

“What--” Sam looked up, and stopped in shock. The hunting party, led by his brother, had returned with a human. Well, sort of. It was clear whomever they had caught was feral; they had matted hair halfway down their back and they were a mass of bruises and scratches and were struggling weakly at the end of several ropes. “Dean! Why on Earth would you bring _that_ back?”

“It’s an Omega,” Dean said, in a much more sober tone. He set a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I thought maybe you or Mom could help him.” 

“Dean. For the Holy Fire’s sake, he’s feral,” Sam protested. “That’s not...you don’t come back from that.” 

“Some people do,” Dean said with a shrug. “Sam...he’s so thin. And he’s hurt. He’d’ve died if we’d’ve left him out there on his own.” 

Sam sighed heavily. “Fine. I guess...get Mom, and Lisa, and see if they can’t calm him down and get him to eat something. Shit!” he exclaimed, as he watched the unknown Omega pitch forward in a sudden dead faint. “Lay him by the fire,” he instructed the hunting party. “And get Mom and Lisa!” 

Sam ducked back into his hut and grabbed his to-go bag, which held most of his medicines. He hurried over to the communal fire, glad that it was normal to keep a pot of water boiling at all times. He used a handy scrap of deer leather to pull the pot off, and then crouched down by his new patient. 

The Omega was naked, and emaciated. He had multiple mating scars over his scent glands, and his back was a mass of scar tissue that could only mean he’d been whipped by something. Possibly several somethings. He’d been castrated, too, as was the custom for male Omegas in some packs. He was so dirty and weak Sam had trouble picking out his individual scent; he thought it was something sweet-smelling, but he wasn’t sure. 

The Omega’s left thigh was caked with dirt and blood--some of it fresh. Sam started removing clods of dirt so he could get a better look at the wound; it appeared to be a puncture wound that was a few days old. He began cleaning it with the help of the hot water. The Omega twitched, but didn’t wake, for which he was glad--if he was truly feral, they’d have to hold him down for this. 

“Oh my god,” was Mary’s response when she arrived. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know, Mom,” Sam replied. “Dean found him in the woods and brought him back. Can you help clean him up and look for other wounds while I stitch this closed?” He’d already filled the wound with his special ointment that helped keep the evil spirits away. 

“Of course.” Mary wasn’t a healer like Sam was, but she knew the basics. 

“Be careful; he was feral,” Sam warned, though he doubted the Omega would regain consciousness anytime soon. He carefully stitched the wound closed and then bandaged the leg as his mother washed the man’s face. 

“His nose has been broken,” she said quietly. “Not recently, though.” 

“That’s not all,” Sam replied. The man’s left arm showed signs of being broken but not set properly before healing. He continued to check his patient over for other fresh wounds, but didn’t see any. “Maybe...since he was feral, feral Alphas have been at him.” At least, he hoped that was the case, and that no one in their right mind would do this to an Omega. 

“Maybe,” Mary agreed quietly, but she didn’t sound convinced. 

Lisa, the other Omega in their pack, arrived, waddling along at several months pregnant, and started helping to clean the Omega off. “I’ll go get him something to wear,” Mary said, once they had gotten him relatively clean. She stood up and headed back toward the hut she shared with John. 

“Okay,” Sam agreed. “We need to get some broth in him,” he told Lisa. 

“You fetch it, and I’ll feed it to him,” Lisa told him, having settled her considerable bulk on the ground beside the feral Omega. 

Most of the tribe members had been watching, Sam found out as he stood back up. Many of them seemed curious, although they all deferred to him--as a healer, the son of the pack leader, and an Alpha, even an unmated one, he rarely encountered anyone who didn’t get out of his way. He walked over to the stewpot, found a bowl, and dipped it in, getting mostly broth in the process. Walking back over, he handed it to Lisa. 

“Thanks,” she said, parting the Omega’s lips to dribble some into his mouth. Sam was relieved to see the Omega swallow. 

“You did what?” It was John’s voice. Sam suppressed a smirk, happy that for once, it was Dean in trouble instead of him. He ducked his head, refusing to take any credit for the situation. Instead, he helped Mary put an old loincloth on the Omega when she returned. 

John soon arrived, but a good look at the Omega as well as a Look from Mary quelled his anger. “Where’s he going to stay?” he asked instead. “And who’s going to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t hurt anyone?”

“He can stay in the sickbed in my hut, for now,” Sam told his father. “But I can’t watch him by myself. I’m going to have to go gather more snakeroot at some point.” 

To Sam’s surprise, Dean volunteered. “I’ll take a watch.” When several pairs of incredulous eyes fixed on him, he shrugged. “I brought him back. I feel a little responsible.” 

Once Dean volunteered, a few other members of the hunting party did too. John nodded. “Fine. He can stay until he’s better. But if he remains feral, or refuses to work once he’s healed, we’re not keeping him.” 

It was a fair judgement, Sam thought. Their pack was more prosperous than some, but that didn’t mean they had a lot of extra food or extra hands. None of them were related to this man, and they couldn’t afford to waste resources on him. 

When Lisa was finished feeding the Omega the broth, Sam stood and gathered the man in his arms, shocked by how little he weighed. He was fairly certain now that the man’s scent was honey, along with some unfamiliar but enticing spice. “I’ll get another bowl of broth for him,” Mary said as she helped Lisa to her feet. 

“Okay, Mom,” Sam agreed, carrying the Omega into his hut and laying him down on the sickbed. 

It was, of course, then that the Omega woke up. Eyes flashing gold in the dim light, he swiped at Sam’s face with his claws. Sam jerked back, although not far enough--he felt one of the claws pierce his skin and leave a line of blood on his cheek. “Fucking Alphas! Get away from me!” the man yelled, baring his fangs and backing up against the wall. 

Sam blinked. If the man was talking, he wasn’t feral--yet his fingers were shifted into claws, his fangs were descended, and his eyes were glowing gold. “Hey!” he cried out. “I’m not trying to hurt you, I’m a healer--”

“Sure you are,” the man growled. He tried to climb out of the bed, but swayed in place and was forced to stop before he made it all the way out. 

“Lie back down,” Sam said, holding his hands up to show that they were empty. “You fainted. You need some more food. My mom’s coming with broth. I swear, I’m not going to hurt you.” 

“What did you--” the man had discovered the bandage on his thigh, along with the loincloth he was now wearing, and was staring down at them. 

“I cleaned the wound up, put ointment on it, and stitched it closed,” Sam explained. “You’ll have a scar there, but hopefully the ointment will keep away the evil spirits that are attracted to wounds. It usually does.” 

Mary entered the tent, and Sam was glad to see her. She stopped short when she realized that the other Omega was conscious. “Is he still feral?” she asked Sam. 

“I’m not sure he ever was,” Sam replied with a shake of his head. “He’s talking, anyway.”

“Let me go,” growled the man, now bearing his teeth at Mary. “I won’t be his bitch!”

Mary narrowed her eyes and put a hand on her hip, even as Sam let out a low growl in response to the threat to his mother. “You stop that, right this second.” Sam’s lips twitched; Mom Voice was almost as powerful as Alpha Voice. The male Omega stared up at her with wide eyes. “We are _trying_ to help you. We have cleaned you up, clothed you, fed you, and my son here took care of your wound. I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but in _this_ pack we have something called manners. Now put those teeth away. The claws, too.” 

The Omega looked at Mary in complete shock, but, after a moment, his hands shifted back to human, and his fangs became...well, less noticeable. “Alphas don’t help people,” he grumbled. 

“They do in this pack, and you’re lucky because you’d probably be dead if they didn’t,” Mary informed him tartly. “Now. Drink this.” She passed over the broth as Sam looked on, amused. 

The Omega sniffed it suspiciously, but his stomach growled loudly and he was soon drinking from the bowl. “Sip, don’t gulp,” Sam instructed. “Or it will come right back up.” The Omega leveled a glare at Sam, but slowed down. 

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” Mary asked. “My name’s Mary. I’m the pack leader’s Omega. This is Sam, my younger son. My other son, Dean, found you in the woods and brought you back because he thought you’d die if you didn’t get help. John, my mate, has agreed to let you stay until you feel better. Apologies for tying you up, but we thought you were feral.” 

“You’re an Omega?” The man’s sense of smell must not be working very well, Sam thought, because he could clearly smell his mother’s wild rose and raspberry scent and he was a few feet away. 

“Yes. There are two of us in the pack, myself and my oldest son’s mate, Lisa,” Mary told him. “Three Alphas, and the rest are Betas. Here, let me untie you.” She reached for the ropes around his wrists, and he flinched hard enough to slop broth over the edge of the bowl...but after a moment, he relaxed and allowed her to remove the ropes. “There, isn’t that better?”

Sam winced when the ropes were removed; the man’s wrists had been rubbed raw by his attempts to escape. He dug in his bag for a moment, and then passed a piece of leather over to his mother. “This will help,” he said. 

Mary unwrapped it, found the ointment inside, and, after showing it to the Omega, she took some and began rubbing it on his wrists. “Now, I’ve told you our names. What’s yours?”

The Omega blinked at her; for a second, Sam thought he didn’t even have a name to give. “Gabriel, okay,” he finally said, slowly. “They call me Gabriel.” 

“That’s a pretty name,” Mary told him. “Did your mother give it to you?”

“Before she died, yeah.” It looked as if Gabriel was having trouble remembering, even though he couldn’t possibly be that old. “Before--before everything.” He paused, then handed the empty bowl back to her. “They...let you wear clothes?”

Mary snorted. “No one ‘lets’ me do anything,” she said as she accepted the bowl. She hesitated. “Omegas in this pack aren’t treated any differently from Betas. Or Alphas, for that matter.” She turned to go. 

“No! Please!” Gabriel’s eyes went wide, and he stared across at Sam. “Please don’t leave me here with him.” Sam felt a little insulted, even though it was obvious how much Gabriel had been through, likely at the hands of Alphas. 

“Here,” he said, offering to take the bowl from his mother. “I’ll go get him some more broth. You stay with him.” 

Mary shook her head. “No. If he’s going to be a part of this pack, he’s going to have to learn that he’s safe with you.” She addressed Gabriel, “If he--or anyone else in this pack--lays hands on you without your permission, you come right to me, and we’ll punish whoever did it. But he’s our healer. He’s also my son, and I taught him better than that. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” With that, she left the hut. 

Sam did his best to not look intimidating. “Um. Are you hurt anywhere else?” he realized he hadn’t asked Gabriel yet. “Besides the thigh?”

Gabriel’s wide, golden eyes never looked away from him. Instead, he mutely shook his head no before curling up, putting his arms around his knees, and continuing to stare at Sam. 

Sam stepped back and sat down on his own pallet. “I’m really not going to hurt you,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster. “I don’t know what happened to you, but my father doesn’t allow people to hurt each other in this pack. We really, truly, only want to help you.”

“Yeah, right,” Gabriel retorted, though there was a little less heat in it. “You’ll just let me go once I’m well enough.” 

Sam sighed again. “If you want to go, we’ll let you go. I don’t think you should go off by yourself, but I won’t stop you, either.” 

“I scarred the last Alpha who raped me,” was Gabriel’s non-sequitur of a retort. 

“Yeah? Good for you,” Sam replied, getting out his mortar and pestle again--he had substances to grind and medicines to mix. 

“Next time, I’m cutting off their knot.”

Sam winced, but still said, “And they’d deserve it, if they raped you. But no one’s going to do that here. You’re safe.” 

“You want to prove that? Leave,” spat Gabriel. 

Sam scoffed. “This is _my_ hut,” he pointed out. “But you know what? You’re well enough, and I can work outside. I’ll send Mom in with more broth in an hour or so, once we’re sure you’re going to keep that down.” He got up, grabbing his things, and stalked outside the hut. If the infuriating Omega didn’t want his company, he wouldn’t inflict it upon him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you were upset about the description of what happened to Gabriel in the last chapter, you, uh. Might wanna skip this one...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fills the 2019 SPN ABO bingo square, **'Rose/Lemons/Pine.'** Yes, that bingo is over. But I must finish my card anyway.

Thankfully, Gabriel fell into an exhausted slumber before the topic of where Sam was going to sleep came up. The Omega had begged for a knife that afternoon, but they wouldn’t give him one. When he’d explained he just wanted to cut his matted hair off, Lisa had done it for him as he wouldn’t let anyone but another Omega near him with a knife.

In any case, there were no protests when Sam finally laid down on his pallet across from the sickbed. He’d checked to make sure Gabriel’s breathing was normal and that the bandage was still in place, but in reality he knew Gabriel didn’t really want to be helped, and would probably run away at the first opportunity. He thus decided not to invest a lot of emotional effort into the man, something he’d learned in his years as the pack’s healer. Some people just didn’t want to be saved. 

Sam woke up in the middle of the night to whining noises. He immediately levered himself up off of his pallet and moved over to the sickbed; only when he saw Gabriel’s silhouette did he remember what had happened that day. “Please, please don’t,” the Omega was whining as he twitched in his sleep. He’d already thrown the hides off of himself, and was curled up in a tiny ball. 

Sam knew better than to shake the Omega awake. “Gabriel,” he said, as loudly as he dared. Then, just a bit louder: “Gabriel!” He saw his patient’s eyes snap open. 

“Get away from me, Alpha,” Gabriel hissed, swiping at Sam’s face with his claws. Thankfully, Sam had anticipated the attack, and simply leaned back, out of the way. 

“You were having a nightmare,” he said levelly. “I just woke you up.” He frowned as he saw Gabriel shiver. “Are you cold?” he asked, hesitating before leaning forward again. “May I feel your forehead?”

Gabriel growled low, but didn’t swipe at Sam’s hand as he set it on the Omega’s forehead. “You’ve got a fever,” Sam said, making a face before reaching for the hides that Gabriel had thrown off. “You’ll want these,” he said, handing them back to the Omega. “I’ll get you some water and make tea that will help.” 

He left the hut, nodding to the guard outside--Charlie, one of his favorite pack members, who smelled of rose like his mother, but also lemon--and went to find a bowl. The pack had a large clay pot they used to keep water in; he filled the bowl from that and headed back into his hut, where he blew his small cooking fire back to brightness, set the bowl near the fire, and added a variety of leaves and a knob of sap to it. He had barely any light to work with, but he knew where he kept each leaf, and felt each to make sure it was right before he added it to the bowl. 

“What’s--what’s that? What are you doing?” Gabriel’s voice came from the sickbed. 

“Making you tea. It’ll help with the fever,” Sam replied. 

“I think...my brother used to make that tea,” Gabriel said softly, softly enough Sam wasn’t sure he was supposed to hear it. “It’s got...um... bittersweet...yellowflower leaves in it? And pine sap?” 

Sam raised his eyebrows, and glanced back over his shoulder. “It does,” he agreed. “They help cool the body. Your brother is a healer?”

Gabriel was silent for a few moments. “Was,” he said finally. “They killed him. He didn’t do anything to them, he swore not to, but they killed him anyway, because he was Dad’s son.” 

“I’m sorry,” Sam replied, and he meant it. There weren’t many good healers in the area; he had had to leave the pack for years to apprentice under another healer in a pack whose territory was days away. 

“He bared his throat to them and they just ripped it out.” Old horror suffused Gabriel’s voice. “I didn’t think--I would’ve tried to stop them, but no one does that. Kills the former pack leader’s grown Beta sons.” 

Sam made a face; obviously someone did do that, but he wasn’t about to gainsay the Omega. Besides, Gabriel was right in the fact that such a thing was almost never done. Banishment was the typical punishment, both for the former pack leader and for any of their close allies who couldn’t deal with the regime change. Somehow, Sam doubted that Gabriel’s father had been given the option of banishment. 

“Then they--they went after anyone who had protested. Killed them all. All except me.” Gabriel didn’t have to explain why they’d spared him; Sam had seen the mating bites on his neck. 

“I’m sorry,” Sam repeated, though he knew it was far from enough. 

“Wish they’d killed me. Wish your brother had left me out there to die,” Gabriel said. Sam could hear the certainty in his voice, and shuddered. 

It took him a moment to decide how to answer. “If you did that, how would you cut off those asshole’s knots?” he said finally. 

Gabriel snorted, and Sam smiled at finally having gotten a positive reaction from the man. “Like you’re just going to let me loose with a knife,” he said. “And like I could hurt them even if I tried.” 

Sam brought the bowl of tea over to Gabriel’s bed. “It’s hot,” he warned as he handed it over. “Mom always says that the most dangerous thing in the world is an Omega protecting their pups.” 

Gabriel blew on the liquid to cool it, and then took a tentative sip. Sam was pleased there was no longer any suspicious sniffing of the offering. The Omega was quiet for a few minutes, then volunteered, “Never had any. They thought a male Omega could only have Omega pups. So every time I--they--” His voice cracked, and he let out a sob. 

“By the Holy Fire,” Sam swore. He managed to catch and steady the bowl before tea went everywhere, and set it aside. He desperately wanted to reach out and hug Gabriel, but he was fairly certain that would end in him getting clawed. “Charlie,” he said, loud enough to be heard by the guard outside. 

She came in, took one look around, and started laughing. “What’s the matter, big bad Alpha Sammy can’t deal with a crying Omega?” She punched him in the arm. It hurt; it was not for nothing that she was a member of the regular hunting parties. 

Sam huffed at her as she turned to address Gabriel. “Promise you won’t rip me open, right? I’m just a Beta. No dick, and I’m not into men even if I had one.” With that, she plopped down beside the Omega and gathered him into her arms. Sam could just make out Gabriel’s look of complete consternation, and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Most people had essentially the same reaction to Charlie. 

“He needs to finish drinking this, when he’s calmed down,” Sam said, indicating the bowl on the floor. “He’s got a fever.”

“He’s got to get this out first,” Charlie replied, holding a now-steadily-crying Gabriel. “You know how it is.” She nudged Gabriel to make sure he was listening. “Some people say Alphas don’t cry, but Sammy here? He can’t stop.” 

“Hilarious,” Sam told Charlie. “She thinks she’s my little sister,” he explained to Gabriel. 

“I am your sister. Just...from a different mother,” Charlie quipped. “...And father. Anyway, I grew up with him,” she told Gabriel. “You really shouldn’t be afraid of him. He couldn’t even hunt when we were kids because he didn’t want to kill any animals. He tried to nurse them back to health when he found them hurt; it drove his father crazy.” 

Sam scoffed. “Thanks,” he told Charlie. “Thanks a lot.” 

“You’re welcome,” she said brightly, rubbing Gabriel’s scarred back. “That’s it, let it all out,” she told Gabriel. “Whatever happened, it’s in the past. You’re safe now. And look, you got an awesome new haircut out of the deal.” She ruffled what little hair the man had left. 

He snorted again, and eventually calmed enough that she handed the bowl back to him. She helped him keep it steady as he drank, and then helped him lay down. She even tucked the hides in around him. The Omega closed his eyes almost immediately, and seemed to go straight to sleep. 

“Thanks, Charlie,” Sam said quietly. 

“You’re welcome,” she replied softly. “How is he?”

“He should be fine, if he lets himself be. He--he said he wished he’d died out there. After what he said they did to him...I’m not sure I blame him.” 

Charlie set a hand on his arm. “I’ll spread the word; we’ll keep a close eye on him once he gets out of here. If he doesn’t just up and leave.” 

“Thanks,” Sam replied. 

“Don’t worry. Eventually he’ll see that you just want to help him.” Charlie squeezed his arm, and then let go and got to her feet to leave. “He’s already behaving way better with you than he was with Dean earlier.” 

“Thanks, Charlie,” Sam replied. 

“I’ll be right outside if you need anything,” she said. 

“Okay.” He set his hand on Gabriel’s forehead, pleased to feel that the fever had already gone down a little. Only then did he allow himself to go back to his pallet and sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel takes some baby steps toward healing, while the entire pack manages to annoy Sam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fills the square, **'Everyone Knows Before They Do'** for the 2019 SPN ABO Bingo (which, yes, was over months ago...shut up, I'm finishing my card, damnit!).

By morning, Gabriel’s fever was gone, and the Omega allowed Sam to feel his forehead without growling or shifting his hands. He insisted on taking the bandages off of his thigh himself, however, when Sam needed to look at the wound, and rubbed more ointment in himself. Sam was just glad the wound wasn’t an angry red color; the ointment had apparently worked. 

On the other hand, Gabriel had an absolute fit when Dean ducked into the hut mid-morning to see how he was doing. Sam roared with laughter when, not a minute later, Dean ran out of the hut, swearing and covered in the remnants of the bowl of stew they’d given Gabriel. Sputtering, Dean marched over to Sam. “Get your Omega under control!” he demanded, poking a finger in the middle of Sam’s chest. 

Sam scoffed, slapping at Dean’s hand. “He’s not _my_ Omega, Dean. And he’s had a really rough time. Cut him some slack.” 

“He threatened to force-feed me my knot!”

“Dean.” Sam lowered his voice so no one would overhear them, and grabbed his brother’s upper forearm. “Alphas killed his father _and_ his Beta brother. Then, after they got him pregnant, they beat the pups out of him because they had heard that male Omegas can only give birth to Omega pups.”

Dean’s mouth was still open when Sam finished, but he wasn’t trying to talk anymore. Instead, he had gone white. “Shit,” he hissed after a moment. “I mean, I knew it had to be bad, but…”

“Yeah. So...cut him some slack,” Sam told his brother as he let go of him. “And let Dad know. He’s going to want to talk to him soon, and I don’t know how Gabriel’s going to react.” 

“You got a name out of him?” Dean’s eyebrows raised. “I’m impressed.”

“Mom did, actually,” Sam admitted. “Though at least he doesn’t throw his food at me.”

“Bitch.”

“Jerk.” Sam left Dean wiping stew off of himself and headed back to his hut. Bobby, one of John’s Beta friends, was the guard outside today, and Sam nodded to him. “Hey Gabriel?” he called, stopping at the door. “I’m going to come in, okay?” 

There was silence for a few minutes, and then, “...Okay,” said a small voice. Sam ducked inside. Thankfully, most of the stew appeared to have ended up on Dean instead of splattered around the hut. Gabriel was curled up in a ball again, watching Sam intently. 

Sam sat down on his pallet and pulled over some seeds he needed to separate from their coats. “How are you feeling?” he asked. . 

“Fine.” Sam hadn’t really expected any other response. 

“Any particular reason you threw your stew? Not that Dean didn’t look good in it,” Sam noted. “But we do try not to waste food around here.” 

Gabriel looked just slightly contrite, yet still managed to inject a whole lot of defiance into his explanation. “‘M sorry,” he said. “You weren’t here, and he startled me. I didn’t--I didn’t think, I just smelled him and threw it at him.” 

Sam nodded. “Well, I don’t think he’ll come in without knocking again,” he said. “But, if you’re going to be part of this pack, you can’t keep reacting to him that way.” He tilted his head to the side. “People tell us we smell a lot alike, but you can clearly tell the difference.” 

“He smells like the bitter kind of mint. Your mint smells...fresher. Sweeter,” Gabriel said with a shrug and a wave of his hand. Sam was glad to see him relaxing, even if only a little bit. “The rain smell is different, too. Nicer. And he’s loud.”

Sam snorted. “He is that,” he agreed. “Look, we need to talk. By tomorrow, you’re going to be well enough to leave, if you want. Dad’s going to want to talk with you; if you aren’t going to become part of the pack, he won’t want to keep feeding you.” He left the ‘especially if you throw food away’ criticism unsaid. “We need to find something you can do to contribute to the pack.” 

Gabriel sat up and growled at him. “Is this where you tell me I can earn my keep by spreading my legs? ‘Cause I’m not going to do that.” 

“What? No,” Sam said, frowning as he worked to separate the seeds from their hulls. “No. Contribution, like, I don’t know…” He tried to think. What _did_ Omegas do? “Taking care of pups, or…” Gabriel didn’t look mollified. “Collecting firewood, or hauling water, or, or finding food or something.” 

Gabriel’s scowl softened. “I could do that,” he allowed. “You...you’ll really let me go? If I want?”

“If you want to, yes,” Sam replied. “I’d rather you don’t; you could use a few more good meals, and you weren’t doing so well out there on your own. But I also won’t stop you if you really want to leave.” 

“And the others won’t either?” Gabriel pressed.

“Not even Dean,” Sam promised. 

Gabriel was silent for a moment. “Can I...can I go out there? And, um, talk to people? Or do I have to stay in here?”

“Sure, you can go out if you’re up for it,” Sam replied with a shrug. “Bobby’s going to be keeping an eye on you--no offense, we don’t know you that well yet--but you can talk to whomever you want. Charlie’s out hunting today, but her mate Dorothy would probably like to meet you. And Karen, Bobby’s mate, is really nice. She’s like a second mom to Dean and me.” 

Gabriel thought for a few moments. “Is, uh, Dean really mad at me?” he asked. 

Sam laughed, and shook his head. “Nah, he’s fine,” he promised. “I talked to him.” 

“Okay. Um. Can you...introduce me to Bobby?” Gabriel asked. 

“Sure, come on,” Sam replied as he set his seeds aside. He stood up and left the hut. Bobby was sitting just outside on a stump with a hide laying across his face, though Sam knew that not only was he not sleeping, he had almost certainly overheard their entire conversation. “Hey, Bobby. Gabriel wants to meet some of the others. Think you can keep him out of trouble while I go gather some herbs this afternoon?”

Bobby snorted, theatrically, as if he was just waking up, and plucked the hide off of his face to squint at Sam and Gabriel, who had meekly followed him out. “Yeah, I suppose. But don’t be giving me any trouble, boy. I’m too old to run you down if you take off.”

“I won’t, sir,” Gabriel promised. He looked back at Sam for reassurance, and then stepped closer and waited for Bobby to stand up. 

Over the top of Gabriel’s head, Bobby winked at Sam and gave him a friendly leer. Sam shot a bitchface at him--he was NOT interested in the Omega, thank you very much--and then turned back to the hut to pick up the pouches he’d need for gathering herbs. Before leaving the small collection of huts, he watched Bobby lead Gabriel over to a cluster of women who were working on tanning some hides. He smiled as he saw Dorothy greet Gabriel like an old friend. The women then made space for Gabriel, who sat down with them, and Sam left with a smile on his face. 

.oOOo.

When Sam returned that evening, he discovered that Charlie had killed a deer, which warranted a small celebration and meant plenty of food for everyone. Pups were everywhere underfoot as the deer roasted over the communal fire; he grabbed a random one up and tossed her into the air, listening to her squeal in delight before catching her and setting her back down. 

“Hey,” Bobby greeted him. Sam could see Dean leaning against the front of his hut, so the older Beta was no longer on guard duty. “You find what you need?”

“Yeah, actually.” Sam usually did, but it was still important to reassure everyone that he had the necessary ingredients to treat them should something happen. “Charlie get lucky?”

“Yeah,” Bobby nodded, picking up one of his own grandchildren and swinging him about much as Sam had a moment ago. “Never thought I’d see the day a female Beta was one of our best hunters, but what can you do?”

“Charlie’s been pretty determined for a while,” Sam agreed. He glanced over at his hut. “Gabriel go back to my place?”

“Yeah, he was tired and wanted to sleep some. We said we’d wake him up when the deer was cooked,” Bobby said, managing to eye Sam in such a way that Sam knew exactly what he was thinking, but not saying. 

Sam scoffed. “Bobby, you know I’m not interested in mating. And _he’s_ hardly interested in Alphas.” 

“Maybe,” Bobby replied with a shrug and a knowing look. “But he fit in well today, and I think he’s planning to stay.” There was a short pause. “He’d be good for you.” 

“I still miss Jessica,” Sam said, though by now it was without a whole lot of feeling. Her death had been terrible, and Sam hadn’t even really been attracted to anyone else since she’d died. 

“She’d want you to be happy, boy,” Bobby pointed out.

Sam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” It was a familiar conversation. “I have to put all this away before we eat.” 

“You go do that,” Bobby replied, eyes sparkling with mischief. 

Sam gave him one last glare and then marched to his hut, where he found _Dean_ smirking at him. “What?” he demanded. 

“Nothing,” Dean said innocently. 

“Spill it,” Sam demanded. 

Dean shrugged. “Dorothy offered him a place at her and Charlie’s. But he came back here to sleep.” 

Sam rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Of course he did. This is where he’s used to sleeping. I’m sure he’ll move in with them later, if he stays.” 

“Uh-huh,” Dean smirked at him again, and Sam glared at him. 

Correctly assuming Gabriel was sleeping after his eventful day, Sam stalked past Dean and into the hut without announcing himself. He laid out the herbs he had found and strung a few from the ceiling, arranging some so they’d dry slowly and others so they’d dry more quickly. Once that was done, and he judged by the tone of the conversation outside that the deer was probably almost ready, he turned to the Omega sleeping in the sickbed. “Gabriel,” he said quietly, staying well out of range of the Omega’s claws. 

Gabriel blinked blearily up at him. “Huh?”

“Dinner time,” Sam said, gesturing to the door. 

“...Oh.” Gabriel rubbed at his eyes with his hands, and, after yawning widely, followed Sam out and into the midst of the pack. Sam let him stay close, as he wasn’t sure who all Gabriel knew and didn’t know. 

Of course, Charlie pounced on them before they’d made it more than a few feet into the crowd. “There you are!” she announced, throwing an arm around Gabriel. “Dorothy said you kept her company today. I told her you were looking skinny, so I went out and brought a little something home for you to eat. What do you think?” she asked, gesturing to the deer on a spit. 

“It smells amazing,” Gabriel told her, setting a hand on his stomach. 

She elbowed him in the ribs. “It’s gonna taste even better!” she announced. “And as our guest, you get the first piece.” 

“Oh--I--I can’t,” Gabriel started to protest, but Sam smiled as Charlie overrode his objections and dragged him closer to the fire, where Dorothy was checking the deer for doneness. 

“He did well this afternoon,” Mary said, appearing next to Sam using magic known only to mothers.

“I’m glad,” Sam said. “I was really worried about him the first day.” 

“Me too,” Mary replied, glancing up at him. “But you’ve been good for him.”

Sam sighed. “Not you, too.” 

Mary laughed. “I don’t want you to so much as touch him until he realizes he wants it, too. Which he does--you can tell by the way he’s so comfortable around you. It’ll take him time to heal, but you’re healing too, from Jessica. You’re good for each other.” 

Sam rolled his eyes. “I really don’t think so, Mom.”

“We’ll see,” she replied. “In the meantime, I’ve talked with John about him. For now, he’ll forego the pack joining ritual, given everything that’s happened to him. He’s even agreed to wait a few more days before talking with Gabriel about what he wants to do and if he wants to stay in the pack.” 

“That’s good,” Sam said. “He doesn’t really deal well with Alphas.”

“Except you,” his mother pointed out, and Sam was forced to roll his eyes again. He had to admit, however, as he watched Charlie and Dorothy feeding the first slice of venison to Gabriel, that his heart was a little less heavy now that the Omega didn’t seem to want to give up on life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azazel, Asmodeus, and Alistair want their Omega back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which the story earns its graphic violence warning AND its mature rating, all at once...
> 
> This chapter fills the 2019 Gabriel Bingo square, **'Protective!Gabriel.'** Yes, I'm aware that the bingo is over XD. Must finish card, damn it!

The mood of celebration continued the next day, while Sam gave thanks to the Holy Fires that their hunters had been successful. He burned select pieces of the deer for the gods, and chanted sacred words. 

All of that he’d expected; what he hadn’t expected was Gabriel following him around like a shadow. Sure, the Omega was hard at work softening a hide he’d been given, but he still stayed quite close to Sam. It led to even more teasing from the pack, which Sam managed to weather for most of the morning. 

Finally, however, his resolve cracked. “What are you doing?” he asked, realizing he sounded exasperated as he turned to the Omega. 

Gabriel’s eyes went wide with fright, and he scrambled back a little ways. “Sorry! Sorry! I, uh.” He turned red. “I thought maybe, since my brother taught me a little, I could maybe...sorry. No. It’s silly.” He grabbed his hide, and started to get up. 

Sam blinked. “Wait--Gabriel--I didn’t mean it like that.” He thought he understood, now. “You...want to become a healer?”

Gabriel dropped his eyes to the ground, going even redder. “Like I said, silly. Ha. Silly me. I mean, your pack already has one, so you don’t really need another.”

Sam recalled that Gabriel’s brother had been a healer, and his heart broke just a little. “It’s not silly,” he said gently. “If something happened to me, they’d need another. And sometimes, it helps to have several pairs of hands.” He patted the ground beside himself. “Come here. I’ll show you a few things.” 

“Really?” Gabriel looked up, eyes wide but no longer in fright. “You...you think I could learn? Even though I’m an Omega?”

Sam scoffed. “Of course you can, if you want to. Nothing wrong with your brain that I’ve seen.” He patted the ground again. “What do you remember from your brother?”

Gabriel hesitantly walked over to his side and sat down, cross-legged, beside Sam. “Not a lot,” he admitted. “I didn’t really pay much attention. I wish I had, now.” 

“That’s all right,” Sam told him. “We’ll start at the beginning, then. What do you know about snakeroot?”

.oOOo.

Gabriel proved to be a quick study, which Sam told John at lunch. The Alpha of the pack seemed impressed, and gave his blessing for Sam to officially teach Gabriel what he knew. As Sam had pointed out earlier, a second pair of healing hands in a crisis couldn’t go amiss. 

The pack had just started to get back to work after eating when a shrill whistle sounded somewhere outside the collection of huts. Gabriel flinched, hard, and turned wide eyes to Sam. “What’s that?” he asked.

Sam grimaced, and pulled his knife from his belt as he stood. “Strangers approaching the pack,” he explained. “Rufus was on lookout; that was him whistling.”

Gabriel stood beside him. “How do you know they’re strangers?” he asked. 

“There’s a different whistle if we know them.” All around them, the pack was gathering up pups and herding them into a few of the huts, while most of the adults were picking up weapons and arranging themselves so that if they did have to fight, they wouldn’t get in each other’s way. It may have seemed like an overreaction to an outside observer; after all, the strangers could just be people from a new pack that wanted to trade. However, Rufus’ whistle had been descriptive on many levels. Admittedly, the man was a bit paranoid, but he’d still given the signal for multiple unfriendly strangers. 

Charlie ran up and pressed a knife into Gabriel’s hand. She gave Sam a look as if daring him to protest, but he didn’t--he actually felt a little better now that Gabriel could defend himself if he needed to. 

John stepped out of his hut, walking out in front of the rest of the pack and in the direction from which the whistle had sounded. Mary stood a little ways behind him and to the side. Lisa mirrored her on the other side as Dean stepped up next to John. 

Sam stepped forward as well; he was an Alpha, after all, even if he was far from the pack’s best fighter. Charlie, Bobby, and others were right behind them, bristling with knives and spears. Sam tried not to think about how Gabriel kept close to him, much as Lisa was doing with Dean and Mary was doing with John. 

Sam smelled the Alphas before he saw them. All three of them--likely brothers--had sulfur as a primary scent, with several other equally unpleasant smells mixed in. As soon as he saw them, he knew who they were: one had slash marks across his face, and Sam remembered what Gabriel had said about scarring the last Alpha who’d raped him. Gabriel had done a good job, as far as Sam could see. 

Gabriel, meanwhile, had gone stock-still, but then begun shaking. The knife Charlie had given him stayed in his hand, however, and he was pointing it toward the Alphas. 

The three Alphas stopped a few feet out of the treeline, and the lead one gave John a smile, lifting his hands to show there was nothing in them, though he had a knife at his belt and a spear at his back. The scarred one’s eyes were on Gabriel, and he had a bow, though there was no arrow on the string. The last, taller than the other two, had a knife and spear and was looking around warily. 

“Hello there. Apologies for comin’ on to your territory,” the shortest of the three and the one in the front told John. Sam could see he had amber eyes, which leant him a slight air of menace. “We’re not looking for any trouble. You know, you look like an Alpha who likes it straight, so that’s what I’m going to give you. Our Omega ran away, and we followed its trail. Looks like you found it first.” He gestured toward Gabriel, whom Sam heard suck in a sharp breath. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to just give it back?”

John stared at the other man, and then turned and looked at Gabriel and Sam. Sam bit his lower lip; Gabriel wasn’t part of their pack yet, and John certainly didn’t owe him anything. Three Alphas could do a lot of damage to the pack if they wanted to. Sam couldn’t tell what John had decided by the time the older man looked back at the Alphas, and he felt himself breathe a sigh of relief when he simply said, “No.” 

The lead Alpha glanced at his two likely-brothers. “Any way we can change your mind about that? It’s completely useless. Can’t even bring a pup to term.” Sam heard Gabriel cut off a whine beside him, and he felt himself clench his jaw. “Doesn’t know how to treat an Alpha right, though Rains know we’ve tried to teach it.” He paused. “How about the two of us sit down and talk about it, Alpha to Alpha? I’m sure we can come to some mutually beneficial arrangement. I’m Azazel, and these are my brothers, Alaistair and Asmodeus, who’s got quite a bone to pick with that Omega. Those stripes you see on his face are its fault.” 

John squared his shoulders. “ _He_ ,” he said, emphasizing the term ever so slightly, “doesn’t want to go with you. And he’s a member of this pack now, so what he wants matters to me. And to the rest of us.” 

Azazel scoffed. “You can’t tell me it actually went through a pack joining ritual already,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “In fact…” He smirked. “Tell you what. Have it come over and bare its throat to you. Put your teeth on its neck ‘again.’ Prove it’s gone through the pack joining ritual, and me and my brothers will walk away and leave you folks to get on with your day.” He turned his smirk on Gabriel, who was now shaking like a leaf. 

“I might be mistaken,” John replied, without looking at the Omega in question. “But it sounds like you’re calling me a liar.”

“Not at all,” Azazel replied easily, waving a hand. “After all, it would be foolish to waste so much...effort...on an Omega who wasn’t even part of your pack.” He made eye contact with the other pack members, and Sam hated him for it. He knew the attempt at dividing the pack wouldn’t work--John’s pack was extremely loyal to him--but it made Sam’s hackles rise. 

“Look out!” Alistair’s eyes went wide, and he pointed behind the pack, into the trees. Later, Sam would never know why he fell for it, but, like most of the pack, he turned around to see what Alistair was pointing at. 

There wasn’t anything. 

“Sam!” Gabriel cried out, a horrified look on his face, and the warning saved Sam’s life. He darted to one side, and Asmodeus’ claws opened up his left arm instead of his stomach. Sam howled in pain and whirled around, knife at the ready. 

The scarred Alpha--Asmodeus--had closed the distance between them and attacked Sam. Sam swiped at him with his knife, but the other Alpha dodged, feinted with his claws, and managed to sweep Sam’s feet out from underneath him with a well-placed kick. Despite growing up with Dean, Sam never had really become a good fighter. Knife arm stupidly out, away from his body, Sam watched Asmodeus’ face descend rapidly toward his throat, and knew that it was all over for him. 

Then, Asmodeus’ body jerked. “Leave!” Sam couldn’t figure out who was yelling, or why. “Him!” Asmodeus’ body jerked a second time, and he howled in rage and turned to face the new threat. “Alone!” 

As the sulfur-scented Alpha turned, Sam surged up, feeling his fingers turn to claws. His fangs had descended too, and without thinking, he sunk his teeth into the meat of the back of the man’s shoulder. His right hand snaked around, and his claws found his way to the man’s throat. Asmodeus stiffened in his grasp. Sam heard a gurgle as the man breathed, and, spotting Gabriel hovering over them with a bloody knife, put two and two together. Gabriel had stabbed Asmodeus in the back and must have punctured a lung. 

The man was far from dead, however, and he struggled in Sam’s grasp. Sam tightened his claws, drawing blood from his throat. The man growled, but went limp. 

Sam probably should have realized what was going to happen next, but he didn’t. Gabriel darted forward, eyes hard and flashing golden as he cut the belt holding Asmodeus’ loincloth up. He then grabbed...well, Sam didn’t really want to think about what it was; his terrified Alpha mind refused to identify it even after Gabriel had separated it from Asmodeus’ body and was holding it up. “That’s for what you did to my brother, asshole,” the Omega hissed, dropping the bloody...thing…onto the ground before turning away. 

Sam knew the man he was holding was dead; it was just a matter of him bleeding out. While Asmodeus undoubtedly deserved a slow death, Sam couldn’t bring himself to hold him through it. Plus, he could hear that someone was still fighting. Sam thus gritted his teeth and used his claws to open up the man’s throat; blood sprayed all over him and Gabriel and several onlookers. 

Sam shoved Asmodeus off of him, and got to his feet, watching as Gabriel hurried over to where John had fought with Azazel. Azazel’s eyes were glazed already, his throat torn out as he lay on the ground at John’s feet. An arrow protruded from his back, and an unrepentant-looking Rufus stood just inside the treeline holding a bow. Sam looked over his father with the critical eyes of a healer, and didn’t see anything beyond a few scrapes that would heal just fine on their own. 

Dean was still fighting with Alistair, who had attacked him with a knife. Dean had several cuts that Sam knew he was going to have to stitch up, but he’d just managed to knock Alistair’s knife hand to the side and close the distance between them before opening up Alistair’s stomach with his claws, disemboweling him. Sam made a face at the stench, but it didn’t seem to bother Gabriel, who hurried over to Alistair even as Dean stepped clear. 

Gabriel emasculated the dying man, cutting off Alistair’s knot and holding it up for him to see. “And that’s for my father, you bastard!” he exclaimed as he tossed the bit of flesh to the side. 

Bobby stepped forward to finish Alistair off with his spear; Sam watched Gabriel watch Alistair die, and hoped that it made the Omega feel better. 

.oOOo.

Gabriel did feel better--for all of a moment. Then, he looked up to see the entire pack’s eyes on him, and he froze. The expressions on their faces ranged from completely horrified (a lot of the males) to impressed (Charlie) to frightened (Lisa). Eventually, through no conscious prompting of his own, his eyes met John’s. He swallowed hard, unable to look away from the pack leader, who would be well within his rights to kill Gabriel for what he’d just done. 

He was surprised when John spoke. “You finished, son?” Gabriel blinked up at him, and then looked down at his bloody hands, which still held the knife. It took him a moment to realize that John was actually asking him if he was about to try to take out his rage on the three Alphas in John’s pack. 

Gabriel let the knife drop from his hands, and forced them to change back to something closer to human. “Yes, sir.” He didn’t think he’d ever been that polite before in his life. 

John nodded at him, relaxing slightly when he released the weapon. “Anyone else likely to come after them?”

Gabriel shook his head no. “No one else liked them enough to follow them.” 

To his surprise, John smiled at him. “Can’t imagine why.” The Alpha took a deep breath, and then deliberately looked away from Gabriel, toward Sam and Dean. “Why don’t you help patch people up? We can talk afterward.” 

Gabriel nodded, although he wished he could put off having a conversation with John even longer than however long it would take to treat Sam and Dean. Instead, he made his way over to Sam, where Charlie was helping the healer put pressure on his bleeding arm. 

Gabriel vaguely heard John and Bobby start giving Rufus a mock hard time about shooting Azazel in the back as he walked up to Sam and Charlie. “My bag,” instructed Sam, nodding to his hut, and Gabriel hurried over to collect the bag. Gabriel knew it held medication, as well as gut and a bone needle for stitching the wounds closed. 

He sat down next to Sam, who talked him through stitching his arm up. Gabriel thought that it wasn’t very fair, Sam having to tell someone else how to help him, but they weren’t exactly spoiled for choice. Thankfully, when it was Dean’s turn, Sam took over with his good arm, and Gabriel only had to help. He didn’t really understand why he trusted Sam more than he trusted Dean--maybe it was just the amount of time he’d spent with each--but he did. 

Once Dean was stitched up, the older Alpha left, but not before telling everyone who would listen that he and Lisa were going to take a little ‘walk’ and would be back later. Gabriel supposed it was the rush of feeling from the fight. 

He braced himself as John came over, though he was surprised when the man sat down across from him and Sam--and even more so when Mary sat down next to him. Gabriel hung his head, figuring that, at the very least, he was going to be politely sent on his way. Omegas didn’t interrupt fights between Alphas. Omegas _certainly_ didn’t do something as extreme as emasculating Alphas if they wanted to be part of a pack. 

Gabriel was therefore shocked when John started with, “Thank you for saving my son.” When Gabriel’s brow furrowed, John explained, “Rufus saw everything.” He leveled a mock-glare at Sam. “Someone needs to work on his fighting skills.” 

Sam snorted indelicately. “I’m a healer, not a fighter, Dad,” he told his father. 

“Those Alphas didn’t seem to care what you were,” John began, but Mary laid a hand on his arm and he stopped and turned back to Gabriel. “I meant what I said earlier. If you’re willing to defend us and our pups that fiercely, you can consider yourself a member of the pack. No ritual required; Sam explained why you don’t want your throat between an Alpha’s teeth, and I don’t blame you.” 

“I--” To be honest, Gabriel wasn’t sure what he wanted; thankfully, John held up a hand to forestall him. 

“You won’t be forced to mate with anyone. If you want, you can even spend your heats alone; we’ve got a hut a ways from here we use for that sort of thing and we can send a Beta guard with you so no one bothers you. All I ask in return is that you do a solid day’s work every day, whether that be hauling firewood or learning healing from Sam here. In return, you’ll get protection and a full belly as long as we have food. If we don’t, everyone goes hungry equally.” 

Gabriel’s eyes were wide; he couldn’t believe what he was being offered. A home, a say in what happened to him...it was so very unlike what he’d experienced previously. “Why?” he blurted out. “I mean, okay, maybe I helped Sam, but even before that, you said I was part of the pack when I wasn’t. Why?”

John smirked. “Careful, boy--didn’t you see what happened to them that call me a liar?” He tilted his head to the side. “Look. It’s obvious to everyone that you’ve had a rough life. I get that. So, I gave you a chance. Plus, I really didn’t like the look of those Alphas.” He shrugged. 

“...Thank you,” Gabriel forced himself to say. It was sincere, but it was still hard to accept kindness after everything he’d been through. 

“You’re welcome. I assume that means you want to stay?” John asked. 

“Yeah,” Gabriel replied, nodding. He knew he’d die if he took off on his own. “Yes, sir. I’ll stay.” 

“Good. Welcome to the pack, then,” John said. He reached out a hand to set it on Gabriel’s shoulder, but stopped and pulled it back at the last minute. Gabriel watched Mary and John get up and walk away, still bemused. 

“You should go wash the blood off of you in the river,” Sam told him, as he also stood. “You’re absolutely covered.” 

“Okay.” Trying not to feel like a little boy who has just gotten away with stealing honeycomb without getting a single bee sting, Gabriel stood slowly and walked down to the river to wash himself off.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More backstory.

The next week or so was incredibly uneventful compared to the fight. Rufus and Bobby had dragged the Alphas’ bodies away, leaving them out to be eaten by scavengers. Gabriel, unable to claim sickness any longer, moved in with Charlie and Dorothy and a couple of orphaned pups that they’d taken in. It was a little crowded in the hut, but still nicer than what he was used to. 

He spent most mornings with the women, and most afternoons with Sam, learning healing. It reminded him of Raphael, but in a good way. He thought that was why he liked Sam’s hut, too--it smelled the way Raphael’s old hut had. 

Gabriel didn’t often go to gather food, as his slightly greater strength gave him an advantage where carrying firewood was concerned. However, he picked up anything edible he found as he made his way through the forest looking for downed timber, as did most of the pack. After a few days, he began picking up healing herbs as well and bringing them back to Sam to be sure of his identification. 

Both John and Dean mostly avoided him, for which he was thankful. It was still uncomfortable to have Alpha eyes on him, even if the attached Alpha had never hurt him. Sam’s eyes...well, Gabriel had somehow convinced himself that they were a healer’s eyes first, and an Alpha’s eyes second, and they didn’t bother him as much as they probably should. 

He broke down almost daily, whenever he was met with a kindness that he hadn’t had in years, whether it was a pat on the back or a hug or even one of the pups making him a bracelet out of braided grass. Gabriel hadn’t really expected to get along well with the pups, but he found that an hour or so of playing their games with them--sorry, _watching_ them--and hearing their laughter was better than any of Sam’s balms. No one ever made fun of him for crying, and whenever he wanted space, he was given as much of it as he needed. 

Gabriel walked into the village one day, lugging as much firewood as he could carry on his back. He set it down and stretched out; he was understandably sore. It was almost time for the midday meal, but he set about moving his wood to the communal stack first. He’d never had much of a work ethic before, but he felt it was important to keep his end of the bargain with John. If he did, maybe the Alpha truly wouldn’t let anyone touch him. 

Rufus had been about to walk by, but bent down to help Gabriel instead. “Hi,” Gabriel said softly, still not used to drawing attention to himself. 

“Hey. I got this, why don’t you go get something to eat?” the older man suggested. Rufus offering to help someone besides Bobby or John was almost unheard of, so Gabriel lifted his head and blinked at him. 

“Really?” he asked. 

“Yeah, really.” Rufus looked like he wanted to say something else, though, so Gabriel continued to help him move the wood. Sure enough, the older man spoke after a short time. “I just wanted to say I ain’t never been mated.” Gabriel paused, and frowned; was Rufus going to propose that they get together? It wasn’t unheard of for a Beta to mate with an Omega, though Gabriel was completely uninterested. “More people oughta try it.” Apparently not. “Proud of you for not letting them set you up with someone. You need anyone to help guard you when your heat hits, you feel free to ask me.” 

Gabriel stared at the older man, but finally remembered himself and nodded. “Thanks,” he said, not quite sure what else to say. “I appreciate it.” 

“No problem. Now go eat,” Rufus told him. 

Still a bit unsure of what had just happened, Gabriel obeyed. It was mid-summer, so the berries were just beginning to ripen, and he helped himself to a handful that someone had picked earlier. There was dried meat as well, so he took a strip of that too and sat down near the fire and looked around. 

Karen sat down next to him; Sam had been right, Gabriel had liked her right away. “Rufus didn’t give you a hard time, did he?” she asked. 

“No,” Gabriel replied, shaking his head. “He was just…” He popped some berries into his mouth so he didn’t have to complete the sentence. 

Karen laughed. “I know exactly what you mean. He, Bobby and John have been friends for forever. I still don’t get what they see in him, but he’s mostly harmless.” She watched him look around. “Looking for Sam?”

“Where is he?” Gabriel asked. 

“In his hut. He’s got a bad headache,” she told him, helping herself to the dried meat. “He gets them every once in a while. They hurt so bad he can’t even eat without throwing up, poor thing.” 

“Really?” Gabriel knew Alphas often got headaches, but for some reason he was surprised that Sam suffered from them. 

“Yes, and he won’t take any of the medicines he’d give anyone else,” Karen shook her head sadly, paused, and then added, “I think he’s still punishing himself for Jessica.” 

Gabriel had heard the name, but had not yet been in a situation where it was this easy to ask about her. “Jessica?” he repeated. 

“Oh, of course, you wouldn’t know,” she said, perhaps just a little too nonchalantly. “Jessica and Sam mated, a few years back. They seemed made for each other, and were so happy.” She got a wistful look on her face. “A lot like Bobby and me. Unfortunately...about a year later, she died trying to give birth to his pups. They didn’t make it, either.” 

Gabriel blinked. Suddenly, a lot of the things Sam did made a lot more sense. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. 

Karen shrugged. “It happens, especially with Omegas; even the best healers can’t do anything about it. But he still thinks it’s all his fault. It’s why he won’t even look at other possible mates.” She smiled at him, sadly. “Everyone has their burdens to bear in life, I suppose.” 

“Yeah, uh…” Gabriel thought quickly. “You know, my brother had a way of making Alpha headaches go away. I’m going to go see if I can’t help him,” he said, shoving the rest of the meat into his mouth and chewing on it as he stood. 

“Good luck,” Karen told him. Her knowing look went completely over his head; his intention was honestly solely to help someone feel better. 

He made his way over to the door of Sam’s hut, and then felt stupid. What if he couldn’t remember what Raphael had shown him? What if it didn’t work on Sam? He took a deep breath, though, and fought through the panic. It couldn’t hurt to try. “Sam?” he kept his voice quiet. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah.” The answer was groaned; the voice’s owner was very clearly in pain. 

Gabriel stepped into the hut and waited a moment as his eyes adjusted to the light. Sam was sprawled face-down on his pallet. “Don’t really think I can teach you much today, though,” the healer added. 

Gabriel swallowed hard, trying to figure out why he had _willingly_ gone into an Alpha’s space. But he was a healer-in-training. Right. He was there to help. Plus, the mint had wilted, the rain chased away by the scorching sun. He wanted to fix that scent. “My brother Raphael used to help my other brother Lucifer when he got bad headaches. Can I, uh, can I try something with you? It might not work,” he added quickly. 

Sam turned his head and cracked an eye open. “What?” he asked. 

“It’s...I rub certain spots on your back. Sometimes it makes the headache go away. Raphael said it worked on most Alphas,” Gabriel explained. 

“Sure, you can try,” Sam replied, though he didn’t sound very enthusiastic. 

“Okay.” Gabriel went over and kneeled down by Sam’s pallet. “I’m...not sure I remember the exact spots, so...if something feels sore, tell me?”

The Alpha on the pallet nodded, then seemed to think better of the motion. His back was uncovered, though, so Gabriel tentatively set his hands on Sam’s shoulders. He rubbed them gently for a moment, then tried to remember the first point. It was...over here, somewhere, he thought, as his fingers skated across the edge of Sam’s shoulder blade, slowly increasing the pressure. “Ah! Ow! There!” Sam cried, pressing himself further into his bedding. 

Gabriel’s head came up; he had felt his fingers move over a hard lump. “Stay still, that’s the spot I was looking for,” he told Sam, as he moved his fingers back a few centimeters. He pressed on the lump hard, keeping up the pressure for a count of twenty. Then he began to gently rub his fingers in circles around it for another count of twenty. “How’s that?” he asked afterward. 

“...Better,” Sam told him, surprise in his voice. 

“There are several more spots,” Gabriel told him, though he went searching for the one on Sam’s other shoulder first, now that he’d been reminded of where it was. Sure enough, there was another lump there, and Sam flinched when he pressed on it. He repeated the process he’d used with the other one. Sam slowly relaxed. 

Gabriel found all four spots on both sides, the last directly on the back of Sam’s head. Each time, the Alpha reacted as if the spot pained him, but he relaxed more and more as Gabriel forced each of the little lumps to release their tension. “How’s that?” he asked, rubbing Sam’s back gently with one hand after he’d finished with the last one. 

“That’s...it’s much better. Thank you,” Sam said, glancing over his shoulder. “Your brother taught you that?”

“He didn’t really teach me; I just watched him do it once or twice.” Gabriel couldn’t help but feel a little smug; Sam looked better than he had when Gabriel had walked in, and wasn’t that what a healer was supposed to do? 

“You’ll have to show me, when I’m feeling better. Dad gets these too, sometimes.” 

“My brother said most Alphas got them, though Dad rarely had them. One of my older brothers did, though,” Gabriel explained, leaning back. 

“Lucifer,” Sam repeated the unfamiliar name, nodding. “He’s...gone too?” he asked gently. 

“Not like you mean. He and my other older brother, Michael, both went off to try to found packs of their own. They couldn’t stand each other, not like you and Dean, and they didn’t get along well with Dad either.” Gabriel smiled ruefully. “Things might’ve been different, if they had still both been there when Azazel came.” 

“I’m sure,” Sam agreed. “But we can’t change the past, no matter how much we might want to.” He paused, then added, “Look, if you don’t mind, I’m going to try to nap a little, because I didn’t really sleep last night, and then maybe I’ll feel well enough to take you out and show you that plant I was talking about yesterday. If you still want to see it.” 

“Okay,” Gabriel agreed, climbing back to his feet. “I’ll see if Dorothy and Lisa want to be spelled; they’re watching the pups.” 

“See you in an hour or two, then,” Sam told him, making himself more comfortable. 

“All right,” Gabriel said, standing and walking out of the hut, feeling proud of himself for the first time in a very long time. He thought he could probably get used to the feeling.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel has his first heat with his new pack, and traders arrive in the village.

Everything was fine until Gabriel felt his heat approaching. Terrified that he’d be taken against his will, he tried to hide it from everyone. It led to Dorothy finding him on the floor of her hut one afternoon, fist stuffed in his mouth to muffle his moans of pain. 

She immediately crouched down by him, set a hand on his forehead, and gave him a sympathetic look. “Poor thing. Let me go get Bobby; he’s not on watch right now.” She didn’t say a word about him not telling anyone. Through the pain, Gabriel suspected she understood why. 

She returned a short time later with Mary, who looked even more sympathetic. “Oh, Gabriel. We’re going to take you to the hut we have for this, okay? There are carvings there that will help. And when Sam gets back, I’ll ask him to make you some tea so you feel better.”

Gabriel flinched at the mention of Sam, but relaxed when Mary only referenced tea. He let Mary and Dorothy pull him to his feet and lead him outside the hut, although he really didn’t want to be anywhere near Sam’s mom, as she smelled so strongly of John. 

Bobby was standing outside, looking worried but holding his spear. He tried to smile at Gabriel, even if only one side of his mouth lifted up. “Come on, boy. Mary and I’ll take you to the hut. Dorothy will get some food and water and follow us.” 

Later, Gabriel didn’t remember much about the short journey to the hut. He relaxed quite a bit when he first entered--it smelled very strongly of Sam. It made sense; the Alpha would be the only one in the pack who needed to use the hut since John and Dean were mated. Gabriel didn’t really care for the fact that an Alpha scent calmed him, however. 

Mary pulled some dusty phallic bone carvings with knots down from a shelf, wiped them off, and passed them to Gabriel. “These should help,” she told him. 

“Thanks,” he managed, meaning more than just the carvings. 

“Dorothy will be by soon with food and water,” Mary told him, smoothing his hair back from his sweaty forehead as he fumbled with his loincloth. “Would you like me to stay?”

He shook his head no; he didn’t want anyone to see him like this. She seemed to understand how he felt, as she nodded and turned to leave. “Okay. Just check in with the guard every once in a while so they know you’re all right; I’ll tell them to stay out otherwise.”

“Okay,” he said, groaning as he slowly inserted the first toy. It immediately started to lessen the pain, and he nearly cried in relief, thinking back to when the A-Team, as Dean had dubbed them, had held him. His heat was the only time they wouldn’t touch him, because it amused them to watch him suffer and listen to him beg for relief. Of course, they did everything he asked for--after his heat was done. But during, he was always locked in a cage with his hands bound behind his back so he couldn’t touch himself. He had to admit, even if his new pack planned to send one of the Alphas to him later, this was still better than that.

Mary left, and Gabriel got down to the business of pleasuring himself, trying hard not to picture Sam, what with the Alpha’s scent all over the hut. 

.oOOo.

To his surprise, John, Dean, and Sam never materialized. His guards changed, and they would speak to him from outside, just to make sure he was still okay. He was given food, although he didn’t feel much like eating, and plenty of water--plus some tea that actually helped dull the remaining pain, although only for the first three days. In between waves of heat, he spent time with the guards and worked on hides. Although the situation was embarrassing, they all made him feel at ease. Well, except for Rufus, who was Rufus and thus not really in the habit of making anyone feel at ease. 

Mary, Dorothy, and Karen all checked on him regularly--they even apologized because Charlie couldn’t come visit as she was needed to hunt! Even before the A-Team had taken him, he didn’t think anyone had ever apologized to him for anything. It took him until day three of his heat, though, for it to finally sink in--John hadn’t lied; no one was going to touch him if he didn’t want it. He cried himself to sleep that night, muffling it in the comfortable furs that made up the bed in the hut so Rufus wouldn’t hear. They may not have been tears of joy, but they were definitely tears of healing. 

Gabriel started to feel much better the next day, and the day after that his heat completely finished. Bobby walked him back to the village. “Just so you know, son, Rufus and I ain’t gonna say a thing about anything we heard.”

He nearly burst out crying again--damn hormones. “Thank you. Thank you for...everything.” 

“It’s what pack is for,” Bobby said with a shrug. “Sorry you ain’t had cause to learn that before now.” 

“I... But I haven’t fully been able to work. Um. Can I make up for it, over the next few days?” Gabriel asked, voicing one of his larger fears. 

“Idjit,” Bobby retorted, rolling his eyes. “John didn’t mean you gotta work through your heats. No one works through their heats or ruts. You’re fine.”

Gabriel relaxed muscles he hadn’t realized were tense. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Bobby sighed. “Sam’s in rut right now; you think he’s doin’ any healin’?”

Blinking in surprise, Gabriel shook his head. “Sam’s in rut? But I was-- Where is he?” he asked, turning to Bobby. 

Bobby stopped, turning toward him. “He went out into the forest. Don’t worry,” he added, correctly interpreting Gabriel’s look of concern. “He may not be much of a fighter, but he’s enormous, and rut rage is a powerful thing. I feel sorry for any feral Alpha who wanders along and tries to take him down.” He grinned. “Don’t be worryin’ about your future mate.” 

Gabriel immediately made a face at him. “Why does everyone think that? The very last thing I want is an Alpha touching me.”

Bobby’s eyes continued to sparkle with mischief. “That’s not what you were sayin’ a couple a’ days ago,” he retorted, but held his hands up when Gabriel frowned at him and opened his mouth to bring up the fact that Bobby had literally _just said_ he wouldn’t tell anyone about what he had said while in heat. “I know, I know. If I’m honest...we all just want to see Sam happy again. You didn’t know him, back when he was. He’s already rejected most of the Omegas around here, but he seems to like you and you like him. I know you don’t want anyone touching you, but if anyone would agree to mate with someone but never have sex with ‘em, it’s Sam.” 

For once in his life, Gabriel thought briefly before he spoke. “I... You really think he’d be interested in something like that?”

Bobby shrugged. “Can’t know unless ya ask,” he pointed out. “And you obviously like him a little, because you go out of your way to go around anywhere where John and Dean are, but you have no problem bein’ right next to Sam. I don’t think it’s just because he’s teachin’ ya.” 

Gabriel took a deep breath, and tried to be honest with himself. “It’s not, but I still don’t know… I need time,” he explained. 

Bobby nodded. “‘Course ya do, boy. And we’ll all give it to ya. But we ain’t gonna stop givin’ you a hard time about it in the meantime.” He reached out and patted Gabriel on the back--something Gabriel found that he liked--and then started back toward the village. Gabriel trailed along behind him, deep in thought. 

.oOOo.

Sure enough, Sam wasn’t in the village when Gabriel returned. He showed up the next day, however, and Dean and his close friends proceeded to tease him unmercifully. Gabriel was just glad that Sam was safe, and Sam seemed glad that Gabriel was feeling better as well. They quickly returned to their regular routine. 

A few weeks passed, with Gabriel becoming increasingly comfortable in and around the pack. Mary told him at one point that if John even looked at Gabriel too long, she’d cut John’s knot off, and that he knew it wasn’t an idle threat on her part. Lisa seemed a little bit more resigned to Dean’s wandering eye, but particularly where Gabriel was concerned, he did nothing but look. In fact, both Dean and John frequently took extra care to not approach him suddenly, and Gabriel very much appreciated the gesture. 

Sam was, as Bobby had pointed out, another story. Gabriel found himself becoming hyper-aware of all of his interactions with Sam after his conversation with the old hunter. He had to admit, it was easy to be comfortable around Sam. Plus, he liked making the other man smile. He really wasn’t sure he wanted anything else, though, and Sam was super cautious around him; if Sam was actually attracted to him, he couldn’t tell. 

Gabriel could never quite work up the courage to ask Sam about it, one way or the other--which was odd; he knew as a kid if he’d wanted to ask anyone a question, any question, he would have simply asked it. He supposed he’d done a whole lot of growing up in a very short time. Or something. He didn’t really want to think about that, so he didn’t. 

.oOOo.

A couple of months after Gabriel joined the pack, a group of people from a territory about three days’ journey away came to trade with John’s pack. Nearly everyone, including Sam and Gabriel, came out to meet them when they arrived. Sam was surprised when his nose told him that at least one Alpha and one Omega were among those who had made the trip. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gabriel realize the same thing. The Omega took half a step back, and ended up a little closer to Sam than he had been before. 

The strangers quickly completed their assurances that they would offer no harm to the pack as long as none was offered to them, and then a small man stepped forward to shake John’s hand. Sam remembered him from previous visits, and finally placed the pack--the Alpha’s name was Crowley, and he was their leader. They did a lot of trading; some of them were already spreading hides so that they could arrange their wares on them. 

Sam was looking forward to trading; some of the herbs he had bartered for last time with this pack were quite potent, and he hoped they would be available again. Unfortunately, Crowley’s volume suddenly increased, and Sam unexpectedly became the center of attention. “I heard there’s an unmated Alpha in your pack, so I brought along a couple of my daughters, Meg, and Ruby.” Sam looked over to see him gesture to two women behind him, one blonde and the other brunette. They must have been told what to expect, because both of their eyes were already fixed on him. _Great,_ he thought. While they were both pretty, the predatory looks on the Omegas’ faces weren’t. 

“My son’s unmated,” John replied, gesturing for Sam to come closer. He did so, nodding politely to both Crowley and the women. “He’s a picky one, though, so don’t take offense if he isn’t interested.” 

“What Alpha isn’t picky about their mates?” Crowley said with a smirk and a shrug, easily dismissing the idea. He lowered his volume a little, so he was no longer attracting everyone’s attention. “I suppose I can’t tempt you to take on a second?”

John shook his head no. “One’s more’n plenty for me. And for Dean,” he added firmly, with a pointed glance over his shoulder at his son. Sam nearly rolled his eyes when he realized that Dean was eyeing both Meg and Ruby hopefully, while Lisa frowned beside him. 

“If you’re sure,” Crowley replied. “You know, there’s also a rumor that your pack took on an unmated Omega? A male?” Sam couldn’t help but glance backward to where Gabriel stood, shrinking in on himself now that Sam wasn’t standing next to him. 

“We did,” John replied, nodding. “But he isn’t interested in Alphas at all.” 

“May I still talk with him? See if he won’t change his mind?” Crowley asked, looking over everyone assembled, but seemingly unable to tell which one was Gabriel. 

John took a deep breath. “I’ll ask him,” he said finally. “But if he says no, then the answer’s no.”

“Of course, thank you,” Crowley agreed. “Now, shall we retire to your hut? I have some other business I’d like to discuss with you. Meg, Ruby, why don’t you spend some time with Sam, here?” 

John agreed, and Sam was suddenly left staring down at two young women who seemed more than interested in him. “Uhh...hi,” he ventured. 

.oOOo.

Gabriel really wished Sam hadn’t moved away, even if Dorothy had moved over beside him. After the exchange between John and Crowley, he turned to her. “Is he going to make me talk with him?” he asked as quietly as he could--and as everyone else was bustling about, he didn’t feel as if he was in much danger of being overheard. 

She shook her head. “No, he won’t,” she said, though it seemed as if she wanted to say more. 

“But it makes him look bad if I don’t,” Gabriel added what she didn’t, letting his shoulders slump. 

“...A little,” she admitted. “But, Gabriel, no one’s going to make you do anything. They won’t stop trading with us just because the Alpha isn’t allowed to try to court you.” She set a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 

Gabriel sighed; he knew what decision he was going to make. He owed John, big time. And he could talk to Crowley out in the middle of the pack, so it wasn’t as if the Alpha could do anything to him. 

Dorothy gave him a quick hug. “I’m sure he won’t ask again until tomorrow, so you have time to think about it. But, come on, let’s look at what they have to trade!”

“I don’t really have anything to trade,” Gabriel pointed out. He had a few belongings, but they were all necessary. 

“That doesn’t mean you can’t look,” she pointed out, grinning. “Come on.” She took his hand, and gently pulled him toward the hides, which now contained a variety of woven baskets, shells, necklaces, knives, and the like. 

.oOOo.

“Hello,” Meg purred at Sam. “Aren’t you a big boy?” 

Sam just barely stopped himself from sighing; Jessica had been forward, but not _that_ forward. Ignoring the remark, he gestured around the village. “Would you like me to show you around?” he asked, trying to keep his tone polite. 

“Please.” Ruby came over, and practically draped herself over his arm as she took it. She smelled of some fruit that was so sweet it almost made Sam gag, plus something floral that he didn’t really care for either. Meg came over and grabbed his other arm; she smelled of over-ripe berries and a similar, if not the same, flower. 

Suppressing a sigh, Sam led them around the small village. He wasn’t really sure what they thought they would see; one collection of huts was rather like another. “...and here’s mine,” he said eventually, gesturing to his door. “I’m a healer, so that’s why the pups don’t run in and out of here. They all know better.” 

“A healer?” Ruby sounded genuinely interested; he had to give her that. 

Meg, on the other hand, made a face that he suspected she didn’t realize he saw. “You work? But you’re the pack leader’s son.” 

Sam felt a stirring of hope in his chest. “Everyone works in this pack,” he replied with a shrug. “Unless they can’t for some reason--a heat, or a rut. Dad still goes out on hunts, and Mom works with the rest of the women. I gather herbs, dry them, make ointments, and also say the prayers.” 

Meg and Ruby looked at each other, and held a short but silent conversation. Sam could only hope that they would give up on him; frankly, he had better things to do. “I think I’d better go check how Father is doing,” Meg said, looking up at him and extricating herself from his arm. “But we can talk later,” she added, giving him a sunny smile. 

“All right.” Sam glanced at Ruby as Meg walked away, but she appeared to be staying put. Oh, well; at least one of them wasn’t interested anymore. 

Sam’s mind wandered as he watched Meg leave. He knew he should at least vaguely regret losing the opportunity to mate, but everything had been so strange after Jess had died. Admittedly, especially for an Alpha, and especially compared to Dean, he’d never really been all that interested in sex. Sure, it was kind of nice, but what he really missed about Jessica was the closeness they had shared--the times they had stayed up, talking about the future, or the time he’d had a nightmare and she had held him the rest of the night. He didn’t really care if he had pups or not; sure, he’d looked forward to them when Jess had been pregnant, but afterwards...he had enough nieces and nephews. Which reminded him, he needed to take Kevin under his wing, because the pup was definitely _not_ destined to be a hunter like most of his brothers. 

Sam looked around to see if he could spot Kevin, but his eyes settled on Gabriel instead. He winced slightly, when he recalled that Crowley had been curious about him--he knew Gabriel was not interested in Alphas, and he personally went out of his way to avoid treating Gabriel like an Omega. Gabriel was staring, wide-eyed, at something on one of the blankets. As Sam watched, he reached out and gently touched it, then pulled his hand back, looking wistful. Sam made a mental note to figure out what it was Gabriel had wanted, and see if he could trade for it. After all he’d been through, Gabriel deserved something nice. 

Ruby cleared her throat, and he realized he’d been ignoring her. “Ah...sorry,” he said, looking back down at her. “But...that’s basically everything.” 

“Could we take a little walk?” she asked, smiling up at him. 

“Um...sure,” Sam replied. “There’s a path this way. Sometimes, there’s mushrooms along it.” _Smooth, Sam,_ he told himself. Because she really wanted to see mushrooms. Still, he led her toward the path, and she went willingly, sliding a hand further down his back than he was completely comfortable with. 

.oOOo.

Gabriel watched Sam walk off with Ruby, her hand on his ass, and furiously told himself it was none of his business. He had no claim to Sam. Even though she was clearly a total skank! He forced himself to look away, only to find himself staring at Mary, who seemed amused. “Don’t worry,” she said. “He doesn’t even like her. I’m his mother; I can tell.” 

Gabriel couldn’t help but sigh. “You too?” he asked. 

“I just came over to ask you about speaking with Crowley. You’re the one who was staring at my son, looking as if he wanted to rip apart the Omega he’s walking out with.” 

Gabriel winced. Had he really been that obvious? “He deserves better than her,” he finally insisted, deciding that that would remove him from the equation. 

“Oh, definitely,” Mary agreed. “The blonde gave up on him and is making deer eyes at John now, by the way. But I trust my mate to make the right decision.”

“And if he doesn’t, you’ll cut off his knot,” Gabriel joked. 

“Exactly,” replied Mary, grinning. “But _you_ are trying to evade my question. Will you speak with Crowley? You don’t have to, but--”

Gabriel waved a hand, “But John will seem rude if I don’t.” He let out a sigh. “I’ll talk to him, as long as it’s with lots of other people around.” He paused. “But I can’t promise how long.” 

“That’s fair,” Mary replied, running a hand up and down his previously-broken arm to soothe him. “We all know you won’t change your mind, but Crowley is used to getting what he wants. He’s not going to like walking away from this pack without you and with both of his daughters.” 

Gabriel glanced over his shoulder, towards where Sam had disappeared. “...D’you really think he’s not interested?” he asked. 

“You wouldn’t be asking that if you’d seen the face he made when he got a noseful of them,” Mary replied, squeezing his arm. “You know, if you and Sam were mated, neither of you would have to put up with any of this.”

She was being so sweet; Gabriel couldn’t help but blurt out his greatest fear. “I’m not good enough for him, either, though. I’m broken--I can’t give him what he wants.” 

“Oh, Gabriel.” Mary shook his head. “I doubt that, but maybe you can’t. But what if you can give him what he _needs_?”

He didn’t have an answer for that, so he didn’t respond. Spotting Crowley coming out of John’s hut, he promptly retired to Dorothy’s hut, not looking forward to the next day when he’d have to interact with the Alpha.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I finally clue by four my idiot characters...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay; work has been crazier than normal lately. There's just one more chapter to go, and I'll try to have it finished on time, I swear.

Gabriel actually woke up in a good mood the next morning, so remembering he was going to have to speak with Crowley was a bit of a downer. He made a face, but soldiered on. The traders were still there when he left Charlie and Dorothy’s hut; a few people were still looking things over, but most had settled back into their regular routines. He made a brief pass to see if the item he wanted--but would never be able to afford, as he had nothing to trade for it--was still there. It was. 

After looking at the traders’ wares once more, Gabriel went in search of Mary. He figured that he might as well get the conversation with Crowley over with. He found her speaking with Lisa, who was nursing Dean’s current youngest. Mary was sitting next to her, sewing hides together to make a blanket; several pups were playing or working nearby. They all looked up and smiled at him as he approached. “Good morning, Gabriel,” Mary said. 

“Hi.” Glancing at the little group, he asked, “How’re you?”

Kevin decided to answer his question, piping up to explain, “I’m trying to figure out how a feather works,” while holding up a specimen. “Look, a bird can make the little bits stick together, but once I pull them apart, I can’t put it back no matter how hard I try.” He frowned at it.

“He takes after his uncle,” Lisa explained with a shrug. “Fires know he didn’t get that from his father.” 

“Wow,” Gabriel said, examining the feather Kevin had, and wondering why he’d never thought to question the way a feather was constructed. The pup clearly did take after his uncle. “You should ask Uncle Sam.” 

“Can I, Mom?” Kevin asked. 

“Sure,” Lisa told him, and he immediately got up and ran toward the other side of the village. 

Gabriel chuckled and straightened up. “Cute pup.” 

“Thank you,” Lisa replied. 

“You want me to go get Crowley?” Mary asked, tilting her head to the side. 

“No,” he sighed. “But yes. Will you two stay with me?” Gabriel asked, sitting down next to Mary. 

“Of course,” they both said, and he picked up where Mary had left off sewing as she got up and went in search of the Alpha. 

“How are you?” Lisa asked. She wasn’t a close friend of Gabriel’s, mostly because by avoiding Dean, he tended to avoid her, but she seemed nice enough. 

“I’m...I don’t even know,” he confessed. “Aside from the fact that I don’t really want to be anywhere near that Alpha. How are you doing? How’s-?” He gestured toward her obvious pregnancy. 

“It’s going well. I’m pretty sure it’s at least twins, this time,” she told him, beaming and setting her free hand on her stomach. “I feel the same way that I did with Clara and Carol.” 

Gabriel smiled, trying his best to be happy for her. On one hand, he was; he wished his packmates all the success in the world--on the other, he couldn’t help but be reminded of his own ‘failed’ pregnancies. “That’s great!” 

“It is,” she agreed. “Look, I know we really haven’t talked much, but I just wanted to say...what happened to you was horrible. And when Dean takes over as leader, I’ll make sure he does right by you, just like Mary does with John.” 

His smile became just a little bit more genuine. “Thank you,” he said, and he meant it. Even if Lisa embodied something that had been lost to him, he could still appreciate her concern for him. “Just wish I didn’t have to do things like this.” 

Lisa shrugged. “You know it’s normal for both unmated Alphas and Omegas. Dean and I met when he and John came to discuss something with my father. It’s how bonds are formed between packs. I wish we could except you, but people from other packs won’t understand why.” 

“I know,” Gabriel sighed. 

“Crowley isn’t that bad,” Lisa told him. “He’s a bit...well, full of himself, but he wouldn’t hurt an Omega. The last thing he wants as a trader is a bad reputation.” 

“Thanks,” Gabriel replied, before going quiet as Mary came over, the Alpha in question walking behind her. 

To his credit, Crowley didn’t walk over and insist on shaking Gabriel’s hand, as most Alphas would. Instead, he approached slowly and took a seat next to Lisa, across from Gabriel but a few feet away. “Hello, Omegas,” he said. “I’m Crowley.” 

Gabriel got a whiff of the man. Something horribly fermented and some herb burning. Not as bad as the A-team, but still not something he was particularly attracted to. Still, he knew better than to be rude. “Gabriel.”

“Lisa, and this is Carol,” the other Omega said, lifting her toddler briefly. Mary casually sat down on Gabriel’s other side, sort of facing Crowley and completing the small circle. Gabriel appreciated her support. 

“What a beautiful pup!” Crowley was clearly trying to make a good impression. “And more on the way, I see. Dean’s a lucky Alpha.” Smiling, he turned to Mary. “And you’ll have to remind me to thank your Alpha later. I’m honored he has so much trust in me.” Finally, he turned his attention to Gabriel. “I brought something for you, Gabriel.” He passed something wrapped in a small hide, not directly across to Gabriel, but by way of Mary. 

Gabriel did appreciate the respect the Alpha was showing, although he definitely didn’t care for the man’s scent, which was all over the item he took from Mary. “Thank you,” he said, forcing himself to stay polite as he unwrapped it. He stared at what was there in disbelief for some time; it was a fairly large chunk of honeycomb. Gabriel and his brothers had once raided a beehive for honeycomb--it was something most pups tried at one point or another--and, afterward, had decided it wasn’t worth the stings he’d been covered with. This much was a _very_ nice gift, and he immediately felt guilty. “But--but I can’t take this.” 

“It’s yours,” Crowley insisted, with a wave of his hand. “Give the pack’s pups a treat if you don’t want it.” He shook his head as Mary took to sewing on another part of the blanket. “Just hear me out. _My_ Omegas can do whatever they like with their time, and they get little treats like that all the time.” He eyed Gabriel, who ducked his head down as he re-wrapped the honeycomb. “And, if I may say so, you are _beautiful_. I heard what happened to the Alphas that did that to you, and they deserved much worse just for breaking that nose of yours.” 

The Alpha paused, and when Gabriel didn’t say anything, continued. “I’d never do that--you can ask my daughters, or anyone else in my pack. You wouldn’t even have to mate me right away, if you didn’t want to. You could even just stay with us for a while, make sure you fit in, and we could even bring you back here if you don’t.” 

Gabriel took a deep breath, and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re nice and all, but...I don’t want to mate anyone. And I like it here.” 

Crowley tilted his head to the side, and regarded Gabriel. “John told me you’d say that,” he said slowly, pursing his lips. “And I can see why you’d think that. But there are benefits of being mated that I don’t think you’ve considered--among them, not having to deal with any more of these sorts of visits,” he said, waving a hand in the air. “But you’ll also feel safer. An unmated Omega can be a target if you’re out and about. Very, very few Alphas will mess with a mated one.” 

Crowley just kept smiling at him and talking when Gabriel again failed to respond. “And, lest you think I’m getting a little, ah, long in the tooth...just think. My pack does bloody well trading; they won’t put up with an Alpha they don’t know in charge. So, if someone _does_ challenge me, the entire pack would chase them off. One of my sons--could even be a pup of yours--will take over after me one day, but only when I decide to give it all up. Should something happen to me tomorrow, my sons have _very_ strict instructions on how my mates are to be treated afterward…not to mention some incentives I’ve left for them to do so.” 

“Besides,” Crowley continued, “there aren’t any potential mates here. John’ll only let his sons have one Omega at a time--and beautiful ones they are, too,” he said, nodding to the women in question, “and my Ruby will have the Moose wrapped around her finger by this time tomorrow, if she doesn’t already. They’ll be mated before it snows.” 

Gabriel couldn’t stop the frown that formed on his face at the mention of Sam and Ruby mating. He swallowed down his initial retort, which was rude and might put John in a bad position. Instead, he shook his head. “I’m still not interested,” he told Crowley flatly. 

Crowley tilted his head back and forth, and his eyes narrowed slightly. “Will you at least speak to me again tomorrow? Or perhaps later today, if you have plans? What do you say, love?” 

Before Gabriel could answer, the moose they’d been discussing appeared, towing a rather annoyed-looking Ruby. “Hi! Sam said brightly. “Mind if we join? I just need to talk to my mom about something real quick.” 

Crowley looked up at them, taking in Sam’s faux-innocent expression and the pout on his daughter’s face before turning back to Gabriel, who had smiled at Sam. Innocently, of course. There was silence for a moment or two, and then Crowley threw his head back and laughed. It took him a little while before he stopped long enough to explain himself. “Ahhh! So that’s the way the wind blows. I should’ve known.” He stood up, still chuckling. “Thank you all for your time. And keep the present, Gabriel. If you ever decide to leave Sam, I’ll be around. Come on, love,” he told Ruby, gently taking her arm and pulling her away from Sam. “We can’t count this one as a loss; we never had a chance to win.”

“What?” she asked, as confused as Gabriel felt and Sam looked. 

“They like each other,” Crowley stage-whispered, pointing between Gabriel and Sam. “Look at how they look at each other.” 

Ruby frowned, but looked back and forth between Sam and Gabriel, who were both blushing scarlet at this point. “Oh!” she said finally. “Yeah, okay, Dad.” 

“They’ll be bloody impossible until they get that out of their system,” Crowley told her, still looking and sounding thoroughly amused. 

Sam, unable to address Crowley directly for a variety of reasons, looked around until he found a scapegoat. “Mom? Did you say something?” he asked, his tone just on the edge of politeness. 

“I didn’t say a word, Sam,” Mary replied calmly, shaking her head as Crowley and Ruby walked off, speaking (thankfully) a little more quietly with each other. She was still calmly sewing; Gabriel tried to copy her on his end of the blanket but wasn’t having as much success. 

“Even Dean noticed, and he’s completely clueless. You were walking out with Jessica for, what, two months before it dawned on him?” Lisa pointed out. 

Sam groaned. “Dean just wants a reason to tease me. The rest of you--I don’t know what game you’re all playing, but it’s getting old,” he lectured his mother and Lisa, putting his hands on his hips. Gabriel ducked his head and said nothing; he’d clearly been right about Sam not being interested in him that way. “Oh, _Fires,_ ” Sam swore, looking off in the direction Crowley had disappeared in. 

“Language!” said his mother, although her eyes were twinkling with amusement. She nudged Gabriel with an elbow. “Stand up. My mate’s on his way, and he’s not too happy.” 

Surprised, Gabriel set his sewing down and scrambled to his feet, leaving the honeycomb behind. With no small amount of dismay, he saw John stalking toward the group, the tips of his ears the color of a sunset. “Fires,” Gabriel repeated, but sofly, so as not to be called out. He wanted to run, but he knew such a thing was utterly useless--and could get him hurt or worse. He could only hope that Sam would be the main target of the Alpha’s anger; seconds later, he hated himself for thinking the thought. 

John strode over, gave Gabriel a stern look, smiled briefly at his mate, and then glared at Sam. “That’s it,” he said. “You two, get out of the village, have a long talk, decide what you are or aren’t going to do, and don’t come back until you’re both sure about it.”

“Dad!” Sam protested. “That’s not fair, Gabriel doesn’t want--”

Gabriel expected John to hit Sam, but he just continued glaring. “Have you actually talked about this with him? Do you know for sure what he does and doesn’t want?”

“Well, no, but I--” Sam got progressively redder as John kept cutting him off. 

“Exactly. You’re both damned lucky Crowley was the first Alpha who visited. _He_ thinks it’s funny. Another Alpha could have ended up challenging you and then starting a pack war over Gabriel. It’s one thing for Gabriel to say no to visiting Alphas, and another for me to represent him as available and for those visiting Alphas to think you’re courting him on the sly. So. Both of you.” He glanced at Gabriel, though the order was clearly for Sam. “Go. Sort your shit out. Decide whether or not you’re courting--and if you’re not, then start fucking acting like it.” He pointed toward the forest. 

“Dad! You can’t just--” Sam began again. This time, Mary stood up and stepped between the two Alphas, cutting him off yet again. 

“Sam, Gabriel, he’s right. Go. Talk to one another. That’s all John wants.” She physically turned her son around and gave him a gentle push toward the forest; he obviously let her, as she wasn’t strong enough to force him. “Gabriel?” she asked gently. 

Unsure of what to do, Gabriel nodded and gave John a wide berth as he skirted around him in order to follow Sam. Mary gave him a gentle pat on the back as he passed. “Just tell him what you want,” was her whispered advice. 

Sam stalked away from the village, Gabriel following behind him. Both were still red around the ears. Gabriel realized, after they’d gone some ways, that he wasn’t afraid, despite the arid smell around Sam and the set of his shoulders, which both indicated that he was very, very angry. Somehow, though, Gabriel knew that even if Sam was mad at him--and he had every right to be, at this point--the Alpha would never hurt him. 

Eventually, Sam came to a halt and screamed wordlessly into the forest. Moments later, his shoulders slumped and he turned toward Gabriel, looking apologetic rather than angry. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I know, you want nothing to do with me, at least not like that, and I can’t _believe_ my father sent us out here like two pups that can’t get along.”

Gabriel hadn’t expected Sam’s reaction, but that didn’t stop him from opening his mouth and contributing to the conversation. “It’s not your fault, Sam. I have no idea why everyone’s so Fires-bent on seeing us together. I know you don’t want a broken Omega like me.” He shook his head, and looked away. 

“Gabriel, you’re not broken.” Sam actually took a step closer to him, and reached out to lightly touch his arm. “Even if you can’t have pups anymore, you’d make someone a great mate--if you wanted to, of course; I know you don’t want that,” he added hurriedly.

Gabriel hung his head. “I am broken,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if I can have pups, but...I really...I couldn’t stand anyone touching me like that again. And no Alpha--” He angrily rubbed at his eyes, smearing proto-tears around his face. ”--no Alpha’s going to want an Omega that won’t at least have sex with them.” 

Sam squeezed his arm. “You’d be surprised. I wouldn’t mind that, honestly, if you wanted it.” He sounded nonchalant, and let a few moments pass before he added, “Hey, um...I got you something earlier. Maybe it will cheer you up.” 

Gabriel, who was trying not to sob and hadn’t *quite* processed Sam’s earlier statement, looked up in surprise. “You got me something? Why?”

“I saw you looking at it,” Sam said. Was he blushing? Gabriel couldn’t quite tell, as tan as the Alpha was. “And I knew you didn’t have anything to trade for it, which isn’t fair since you’ve gathered plenty of the herbs I used to trade with them. So I got it for you.” He reached into a pouch, and withdrew a cylindrical object wrapped in a hide. 

Gabriel’s eyes widened in surprise. He knew exactly what it was, as he’d only really wanted one thing, and sure enough, when he unrolled the hide, there was a small wooden flute. “Sam!” he gasped. “You didn’t have to get me this!”

Sam shrugged, now looking self-conscious. “I wanted to,” he explained. 

“But it--” Gabriel forced himself to stop. Instead, he stepped forward and threw his arms around Sam. “Thank you,” he said. 

Sam’s arms slowly came up and hugged him back; the Alpha was gentle, which was hardly surprising given that Gabriel had never hugged him before. “You’re welcome. Uh...do you play?”

“I used to,” Gabriel confirmed, squeezing one more time before stepping back. He tucked the hide away, and then put the flute to his lips, blowing a few experimental notes on it. Sam smiled encouragingly, but he lowered it. “Thank you so much, Sam. I’ll pay you back somehow, I promise.” 

“Really, you don’t have to,” Sam assured him. “I just wanted to do something nice for you.” 

“Well, you did.” Something was in the air, unsaid, between them, and as Gabriel was looking down at the flute and practicing covering the holes with different fingers, he remembered what Sam had said earlier. “When you--shit, this is stupid, but earlier...uhh...what did you mean, you wouldn’t mind that?”

“What?” Sam looked confused, and then realization dawned. “Oh! I just meant,” and now he was blushing furiously, “that I...um, well, I don’t really want pups. And, I mean, aside from when I’m in rut, well...I don’t really…” He took a deep breath, and looked away as he flushed. “I’veneverbeenallthatintosex. So, um. I know you don’t want to, but if you _did_ want to have a mate that didn’t touch you like that…” He finished by waving a hand in embarrassment.

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “You’d--you’d do that for me?”

“Only if you wanted it,” Sam said quickly. “I mean, if you just wanted to have a mate so you could be left alone. You could even stay in Charlie’s place; I wouldn’t mind.” 

Gabriel’s mouth opened to make a slightly sarcastic retort that would end the awkwardness of the conversation, but for once in his life, his brain beat his mouth into submission. He thought for a moment about what he wanted to say, and only then did he force out, “Sam...if we did that...I’d like to stay with you. I’d like to have the things I didn’t have before, like kissing, and snuggling...just no sex. And, uh. I want them with you. Not with anyone else. But...do you even like me like that?”

Sam blinked, and had the audacity (as far as Gabriel was concerned) to look confused. “Of course I do,” he blurted out, likely before his brain could overthink the statement. “You’re smart, and handsome, and...and yes, of course I like you. I just didn’t think you’d ever want me.” 

Gabriel couldn’t help but snort. “Well, that makes two of us. Shit, we’re going to end up proving them all right, aren’t we?” He glanced over his shoulder, back toward the village. 

“The ‘I-told-you-sos’ will never end,” Sam agreed. He reached up, put his hand under Gabriel’s chin, and gently turned his face back around. “If we’re courting...can I kiss you?” 

That shouldn’t have made Gabriel blush, but it did. “Yeah, all right,” he agreed, looking up at Sam. He couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. 

Sam pulled him a little closer, then leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss. Gabriel couldn’t help but to be a little stiff when their lips first met--even though the A-team had _never_ stooped that low--but he soon melted against the Alpha, enjoying first his scent, and then, once he had completely relaxed, his taste. Fresh, sweet peppermint, newly-grown and, as far as Gabriel was concerned, divine. 

They broke the kiss a little while later, and Sam pulled back far enough to smile down at him. Gabriel was happy to return it, and suggested, “Can...can we stay out here a while longer?”

“Of course we can,” Sam agreed, leaning down to kiss him again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end! And a beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU for sticking with me throughout this. Mental note: Never promise more than one chapter per week of anything. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story; I know them being Ace wasn't really what you were expecting (I know I wasn't), but it fit, so I went with it :).

Rufus met them on their way back to the village; John commonly assigned him to lookout duty because he enjoyed it. Rufus frowned down at their joined hands for a moment, looked up and eyed them both, then broke into a smile. “Oh well. Guess there’s just not enough room for another me in the pack. Too much badass mojo. Congratulations, you two.” He patted Gabriel on the back. 

“Thanks,” Sam told him for the two of them. Gabriel was more than content to let the Alpha do the talking, knowing very well that he was eventually going to be interrogated by Charlie and Dorothy, if no one else. 

“Go on, go tell everyone else,” Rufus told them. “Oh! Word is Charlie and Dean got another bear, so I hope you’re hungry.” 

Sam groaned; Gabriel didn’t know why, unless it was that Charlie and Dean would be present when they got back to the village. Honestly, he wasn’t really looking forward to that, either. Sam’s brother could be kind of an ass sometimes. 

However, there was nothing for it; they made their way to the village, Sam occasionally squeezing Gabriel’s hand in reassurance. Gabriel squeezed back once or twice, enjoying the feeling of Sam’s large, calloused hand wrapped around his. They didn’t speak to one another; Gabriel knew they’d be doing plenty of talking once they arrived, although Sam had volunteered to tell John their decision. Even though Crowley had turned out to be okay, Gabriel was relieved that he wouldn’t have to speak with him or with any other non-pack Alphas again (assuming Sam could put up with his brokenness over the long term, of course). 

They became the center of attention the instant they arrived, despite the fact that most of the village was occupied butchering the bear or speaking with the traders. It seemed that other work had been largely abandoned when the hunters had arrived with the kill. Charlie was the first to spot them and their joined hands, and she let out a squeal that turned everyone’s heads. Dean happened to be standing next to her, and she smacked his chest with the back of her hand. Well, his stomach. “You owe me a month’s worth of watches!” she declared happily. Gabriel felt himself flush when he realized that she and Dean must have bet on when he and Sam would get together. 

The Beta bounced toward them and wrapped Gabriel in a huge hug, even as Sam told him, “I’m going to go talk to Dad.” 

Gabriel hugged Charlie back. “We’re only courting,” he told her, trying to, if nothing else, get her to switch to a lower volume. 

“For now,” she replied. “I’m so happy for you.” Then, of course, she turned around and announced, “Sam and Gabriel are courting!” As if the others didn’t already know. He felt himself go even redder. 

Thankfully, Dorothy came over at that point and hugged him. “Sorry about her,” she whispered. “But as far as she’s concerned, you and Sam are her brothers. She’s just happy for you.”

“I know,” he whispered back. He did, even if it was all embarrassing as all Fire. 

“Congratulations, anyway,” Dorothy told him. 

“Thanks,” he told her. The next few minutes were a whirlwind of friends coming up, hugging him, and offering congratulations. Even Crowley approached to a respectful distance and offered his well wishes. Of course, Crowley also reminded him that if Gabriel ever got tired of Sam, he was still available. 

Eventually, Sam came back and slipped an arm around Gabriel’s waist. Gabriel leaned on the Alpha--now there was something he thought he’d never, ever do--and let Sam take over some of the talking. After ten or fifteen minutes, the excitement died down and they were able to visit Dorothy’s hut to get Gabriel’s meager belongings, which they transferred over to Sam’s hut--considerably quieter, as pups were not chasing each other in and out. 

“You sure you want to sleep with me?” Sam asked as Gabriel set his honeycomb and his flute on a shelf. “You don’t have to if you don’t want. There’s always the sickbed.” 

“I want to try it,” Gabriel insisted. “Plus, it’s not as if I have fond memories of that,” he said, gesturing to the bed in question. 

“All right,” Sam agreed, rearranging his pallet so it would be large enough for two grown men. “Tomorrow or something, we should go cut some more brush for bedding.”

“We could’ve done that earlier,” Gabriel pointed out, and then, a little of his playful side reemerging, he added, “But I guess we were busy.” 

Sam beamed at him. “We were,” he agreed. Once the bed was made to his satisfaction, they left the hut and took on the rather important task of keeping the pups (and the hunters) out of the way of the butcherers and the traders. 

.oOOo.

Sam didn’t pressure Gabriel to play for everyone that evening, for which he was grateful. “Don’t you want any more meat?” he asked, as Sam pulled him to his feet and got up himself once the fire had almost died out. 

Sam made a face. “I don’t like bear meat,” he confessed, as he gently led Gabriel toward his hut. 

“Ahh,” Gabriel understood now. 

“You seemed to like it,” Sam pointed out, not unkindly. 

“Sam...if you’d had any idea what they fed me when they had me…” Gabriel shook his head. “I would’ve killed for _any_ kind of meat.” 

Sam pulled him into a brief hug, as Gabriel had assured him earlier that hugging was okay. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s all right. But it’ll be a hell of a long time before I turn my nose up at any kind of food,” Gabriel replied, hugging him back. 

“Noted. Now,” Sam stopped speaking to yawn, which made Gabriel immediately copy him, “shall we go to bed?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed once he’d finished yawning, following Sam into his hut. It smelled of home, in a way the hut he’d grown up in had stopped smelling once the A-team had taken it over. 

Sam went in and immediately collapsed onto his pallet; the night was still too warm for hides and furs. He put his back to the wall, then beckoned Gabriel closer. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”

“I haven’t.” Gabriel laid down, facing Sam--the other Alphas had always slept at his back--and allowed Sam to draw him a bit closer. “Um. I do have nightmares sometimes, though.” 

“That’s all right,” Sam whispered. “What do you want me to do if you have one?”

Gabriel had to think about it a moment. “Just say my name,” he said finally. “If you grab me, I’m afraid I might,” and here he made one of his hands into a claw and made a slashing motion.

“Okay,” Sam agreed, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to Gabriel’s temple. 

To Gabriel’s surprise, he didn’t remember anything more and must have fallen asleep quickly. 

.oOOo.

Life returned to normal once the traders left. Gabriel began to practice the flute when he was away from the village, and quickly got the hang of it enough that he felt comfortable playing for Sam...and, oddly enough, Rufus, who said his mother taught him to play drums. Soon, he and Sam convinced Gabriel to bring the flute out for the entire village in the evenings, and Rufus played a drum while Gabriel kept the melody going. 

For a while, it was idyllic. Gabriel had fewer nightmares when he was sleeping next to Sam, and the two of them got along wonderfully (as they had before they were courting). Sam only very occasionally, and typically accidentally, touched him where he didn’t want to be touched, and pulled his hand away as if burned when he felt Gabriel go rigid. Sam was kind, and caring, and...well, hotter than summer. When he touched Gabriel’s scars, he did so carefully, and reverently. Meanwhile, Gabriel’s massages kept Sam’s headaches at bay. 

It was only a month or two later that Gabriel started to be concerned. He knew he’d have another heat soon, or Sam would have another rut...and what then? Sadly, he had not yet learned his lesson about communication, and began to get irritable with himself and everyone else rather than discuss the issue with Sam. 

It took him snapping at Garth, one of Dorothy and Charlie’s adopted pups, for someone to confront him about it. Charlie started in his direction when Garth came running over, crying, but Dorothy passed Garth to her and walked over instead. “What’s wrong, Gabriel?” she asked. 

“Nothing,” he retorted, and couldn’t quite keep the annoyance out of his voice. Garth had been annoying him!

Dorothy sighed, and sat down next to him. “You’ve never once yelled at the pups unless they were doing something seriously dangerous. Now you’ve got poor Garth in tears. Clearly, something is bothering you.” 

Gabriel puffed up his chest to inform her that she was wrong, but he made the mistake of looking over toward Garth and Charlie (who was glaring at him while she soothed the pup), and he immediately deflated with a sigh. “Yeah, but...it’s stupid. And I’m not even sure I could put it into words.” 

“Try,” Dorothy offered, in a tone a whole lot kinder than he deserved. 

Gabriel thought. “So, um, Sam and I--” Where to go from there?

“Are you two having trouble?” Dorothy asked, concerned. 

“No!” he was quick to deny it. “No, we’re good, it’s just that...well,” he glanced around to make certain Sam wasn’t near, “myheatiscomingup.” 

She frowned. “Do you get irritable before them? I know Charlie and I are terrors just before we have our periods, but don’t tell her I said that.” 

Gabriel blushed. “No, I mean, yes, but it’s not that. It’s--things are just going so well. With Sam.” He realized it wasn’t especially helpful, but said it anyway. 

“And you don’t want them to change?” she guessed. 

“I guess--I just, we haven’t really talked about changing anything,” Gabriel explained, still beating around the proverbial bush. 

“Oh! You don’t know if you want to _mate_ him!” She smiled kindly at him. “If you think it’s too soon, just tell him that. I’m sure Sam will be okay with it. Just because you’re courting doesn’t automatically make you ready to mate.” 

Gabriel felt some of the tension drain out of his shoulders. “Yeah? I guess I just thought everyone would expect us to.” 

“After what you went through?” Dorothy shook her head. “Nope. But you should be talking to Sam about this, not me.” 

Gabriel sighed again. “You’re right. Okay. I’ll talk to him, but--first I’ll go apologize to Garth and Charlie,” he said, offering her a half-smile. 

Dorothy smiled back, and he headed toward her mate. 

.oOOo.

Gabriel finally brought up the courage to broach the subject with Sam later that day, when they were working inside his hut--it had started raining, and didn’t appear as if it were going to stop any time soon. “Uh, Sam?” _Great way to start, Gabriel. You really should have just said ‘we need to talk.’ Seriously, that’s the only way you could’ve screwed it up more,_ he thought.

“Yeah?” Sam did a little double-take when he saw the serious expression on what he commonly referred to as _his_ Omega. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, exactly, but--” Gabriel mentally rolled his eyes at himself. “Our heat and rut are coming up,” he forced himself to blurt out. 

“Oh. Yeah, I guess they are,” Sam agreed, but his attention had been elsewhere and he didn’t seem to be following. 

“We--your dad is going to expect us to mate.” Somehow, it was easier for Gabriel to foist the censure onto John. 

Sam finally focused on him instead of the ingredients he was dealing with. “Gabriel--we don’t have to if you don’t want to. No one’s going to make us.” 

Gabriel sighed, and went back to his sorting. “No, but...it might be nice. I could probably go a bit further from the village, and if anyone visited, it would be obvious I’m taken.” 

Sam pondered that a minute. “So...you want to, but not because Dad wants us to?”

“No!” The sigh Gabriel let out was explosive. “No, I’m an idjit, as Bobby would say, so I want to be mated, but I don’t want to _mate._ ” He glanced up at Sam, and was even more frustrated with himself when he saw the look of confusion on his Alpha’s face. 

“I don’t--” Sam started.

“I don’t want to have sex! But I want the mating bond!” Gabriel hoped there were not too many people around, because he realized his voice and volume had creeped up into the hysterical range. 

“Oh.” Sam blinked, as Gabriel practically panted in frustration. “Well, if that’s what you want...I guess I could give you a mating bite, and we could skip the rest?”

It was Gabriel’s turn to look confused. “You’d...that would be okay? Would it work?” 

Sam shrugged. “I dunno,” he admitted. “But we could try. Are you sure it’s what you want?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel replied, “but--”

Sam set his work aside and patted his leg. “Come here, Omega. If you’re sure.” 

Gabriel’s eyes widened. Was he sure? His brain supplied the _yes_ before he had even finished asking himself the question. “Are you--are you sure?” he stammered.

Sam smiled broadly. “Yeah, I am. Now come here.” 

Gabriel set his own work aside, then crawled over and into Sam’s lap. Sam put his arms around him and held him, but not too tightly. “May I scent you?” he asked. “I think--I may need that before I can get my mating fangs out.” 

“Yeah,” Gabriel said breathlessly. “...Thank you...Alpha,” he added, tilting his head so Sam had better access to his scent glands. They were both scarred, but there were fewer on the side he chose, as he’d rarely been face to face with--nope, best not think about that. 

“Don’t thank me until I manage to do it,” Sam replied. “Probably a good thing my rut’s coming up.” He buried his nose in Gabriel’s neck, and took deep breaths. Gabriel felt him lick over his scent gland, which tickled, and he squirmed just a bit. 

“Okay, on three,” Sam told him, his lips against his neck. “One, two--” and then he bit down, because that’s the way he always did things. 

Gabriel yelped before the brief moment of pain passed, and then relaxed as Sam licked the wound. Before, the mating bond had always felt like a cage door closing behind him, a snare tightening around his ankle, a rock falling in a cave-in...but this time, this time it settled on him like a comfortable fur around his shoulders in late autumn. It had never, ever felt so good before, and when Sam pulled back, he found himself blinking up at the Alpha in confusion. 

“Are you all right?” Sam asked, brushing his growing hair back from his face. 

“Yeah, I...it feels good!” Gabriel blurted out. 

Sam laughed softly. “It’s supposed to,” he pointed out. “But I’m glad you like it.” 

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I like it very much...mate.”

“Alpha.”

“Omega.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more HUGE thank you to my beta, LP-Collins! She's awesome--go check her stuff out!  
> And another thank you to WarlockWriter, who made the moodboard for this story!

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @MasterpieceofTurkeyCleverness!


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